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«° 


Ellis  Newliis  Williamson 

^*  Bloomfield,    New  Jersey  ^ 


I 


THINGS  KOREAN 


A     KOREAN     OFFICER     OF     THE     OLD     ARMY 


Things   Korean 

A  Collection  of  Sketches  and  Anecdotes 
Missionary  and  Diplomatic 


By 
HORACE  N.  ALLEN,  M.  D. 

Late  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary  of  the  United  States  to  Korea 


ILLUSTRATED 


New  York       Chicago       Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 
London        and       Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1908,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  ai  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


Ar 


TO 

MY  WIFE 


M272155 


PREFACE 

There  are  incidents  in  the  lives  of  each  of  us  that 
are  of  more  or  less  interest  to  others.  Often  some  of 
these  incidents  are  of  general  public  interest. 

Twenty-two  years'  residence  in  China  and  Korea, 
including  practically  the  whole  period  of  the  latter's 
diplomatic  intercourse  with  the  outside  world,  would 
seem  to  indicate  an  experience  fruitful  in  incidents 
of  general  interest.  This  is  my  excuse  for  thrusting 
a  new  volume  upon  a  public  already  burdened  with 
books. 

The  writer  spent  a  year  in  China  as  a  medical  mis- 
sionary, three  years  in  Korea  in  the  same  capacity, 
three  years  in  the  Korean  service,  and  fifteen  years 
in  the  diplomatic  service  of  our  own  government, 
beginning  as  secretary  of  legation  and  ending  as 
minister  plenipotentiary. 

The  aim  in  writing  this  book  has  been  to  exclude 
the  personal  as  much  as  possible,  and  to  gather  up 
the  most  interesting  and  illustrative  bits  descriptive 
of  experiences  had  during  this  rather  interesting 
period,  together  with  entertaining  accounts  of  the 
quaint  people  with  whom  these  years  were  spent. 

The  poor  Koreans  are  now  in  desperate  straits  and 
it  has  been  suggested  that  this  work  be  devoted  to 
exposing  their  wrongs  in  an  effort  to  turn  public 
sentiment  in  their  direction.     Such  a  course  does  not 

7 


8  PBEFACE 

seem  to  be  advisable  at  this  juncture, — rich  as  are 
the  supplies  of  materials  at  hand.  Opposition  on 
their  part  seems  at  present  to  be  unavailing  if  not 
suicidal;  they  can  only  make  the  best  of  existing 
conditions. 

The  sad  feature  of  the  case  is  that  we  deserted 
them  in  their  time  of  need  and  ignored  the  solemn 
agreement  we  had  entered  into  with  them  as  an  in- 
ducement for  their  abandoning  the  centuries-old 
position  of  exclusion  and  non-intercourse  and 
emerging  into  the  dazzling  glare  of  treaty  relations. 

Our  treaty  with  Korea  of  May  22,  1882,  in  its 
first  article,  makes  the  following  promise  : 

"  If  other  Powers  deal  unjustly  or  oppressively 
with  either  government,  the  other  will  exert  their 
good  offices  on  being  informed  of  the  case,  to  bring 
about  an  amicable  arrangement,  thus  showing  their 
friendly  feeling." 

We  paid  no  heed  to  this  solemn  pledge  at  the 
critical  time  of  the  Portsmouth  convention  and  must 
accept  the  odium  attached  to  such  violation  of  sacred 
covenants. 

Present  conditions,  and  our  own  mistakes,  are  suf- 
ficiently alluded  to  in  the  concluding  chapters  en- 
titled American  Commercial  Intercourse ;  Diplomatic 
Incidents,  and  Political  Changes. 

It  is  the  wish  of  the  writer  that,  while  fully  indi- 
cating his  earnest  sympathy  with  and  kindly  senti- 
ments towards  the  Koreans,  this  little  book  shall  be 
non-controversial,  entertaining  and  instructive,  and 
of  such  general  interest  that  no  single  page  may  be 


PEEFACE  9 

found  dull  or  tedious.  Actual  conditions  in  Korea 
at  present  as  well  as  in  China,  are  detailed  in  recent 
books,  notably  those  by  an  English  observer  and 
writer  of  note,  Mr.  F.  A.  McKenzie,  and  by  the  well 
known  American  traveller  and  author,  Thomas  F. 
Millard. 

Horace  N.  Allen. 

Toledo,  Ohio. 


CONTENTS 


I. 

A  Pioneer           ...... 

IS 

II. 

The  "  Boy  "  and  the  Ammah 

20 

III. 

A  New  Year's  Adventure  and  a  Story  oi 
Economy 

t 

23 

IV. 

An  Oriental  Bunco  Game  . 

,          28 

V. 

Steamship   Travel   to   and   about  the  Faf 
East 

•          31 

VI. 

A  Ramble  in  Country  and  Town 

,          SO 

VII. 

A  Seoul  Night  and  a  Revolution 

,       68 

VIII. 

Korea  and  the  Koreans 

•       73 

IX. 

A  Royal  Funeral        .... 

-     152 

X. 

A  Mission  to  Washington  . 

■     159 

XI. 

Missionary  Comments 

■     167 

XII. 

Medical  Notes  ..... 

188 

XIII. 

American  Intercourse  and  Japan's  Indebted- 
ness to  Korea         .... 

209 

XIV. 

American  Commercial  Intercourse 

215 

XV. 

Consular  and  Diplomatic  Incidents     . 

223 

XVI. 

Political  Changes  and  Probabilities    .         , 

243 

II 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing  page 
A  Korean  Officer  of  the  Old  Army  .  .  .  Title 
Ponies  with  Pack  Frames  .... 
The  Donkey,  the  Pride  of  the  Lesser  Official 
Peasants  Hulling  Rice  , 

The  Three-man  Shovel  • 

The  Laundry  and  Mangle — "  Woman's  Weapon  ' 
Three  Men  Sawing  One  Stick 
Three  Men  Swinging  • 

Bull  Loads  of  Wood  for  Sale 

A  Royal  Tomb      . 

One  of  the  Priestly  Figures  .... 

A  Stone  Lantern 

A  Street-side  Temple  in  Seoul' 


Seoul  Officers  of  the  American  Firm  Controlling 
the  Electric  Plant  and  Water- Works    . 

A  Group  of  Seoul  Diplomatic  Officials 


*3 


90 
90 
100 
100 
108 
108 
150 
150 
172 
172 
172 
216 


216 

223 


Things    Korean 


i 

A  PIONEER 


Among  the  adventurous  spirits  who  seek  fortune  or 
excitement  in  newly  opened  lands,  there  are  apt  to 
be  vigorous  characters  whose  active  careers  have 
caused  them  to  participate  in  many  a  thrilling  adven- 
ture, some  of  which  are  highly  humorous. 

One  such  interesting  pioneer  in  Korea  was  Captain 
Blank.  Blank  will  serve  as  well  as  his  real  name, 
and  the  title  which  precedes  it  was  sometimes  given 
him  because  of  the  fact  that  he  once  served  on  a 
New  Bedford  whaler,  which  fact  further  indicates  his 
Yankee  birth  and  rearing. 

In  some  manner  Captain  Blank  got  clear  of  his 
ship  at  Vladivostock,  when  he  was  about  twenty 
years  of  age,  and  when  everything  was  new  and  raw 
in  that  Siberian  country,  affording  ample  opportunity 
to  Yankee  enterprise  and  ingenuity.  In  time  he  be- 
came an  extensive  trader,  buying  skins  of  all  kinds 
in  exchange  for  general  supplies.  He  married  a 
Chinese  woman  and  became  the  father  of  a  family  of 
mixed  blood,  including  several  stalwart  sons  who  be- 
came his  able  assistants  in  the  business. 

15 


16  THINGS  KOREAN 

A  Massacre. — One  day  on  returning  from  a  pur- 
chasing trip  to  Japan,  he  found  his  wife  and  sons 
murdered,  and  his  warehouses  looted  and  destroyed 
by  a  company  of  Chinese  bandits. 

The  stricken  old  man  went  to  see  the  Russian 
governor  at  Vladivostock,  from  whom  he  received 
hearty  sympathy  and  an  offer  to  do  all  in  the  power 
of  the  government  to  bring  the  miscreants  to  justice. 
The  governor  offered  him  a  company  of  soldiers  but 
this  offer  he  declined  and  requested  instead  that  he 
be  allowed  three  or  four  volunteers.  These  were 
promptly  furnished  him  and  he  evidently  knew  well 
how  to  select  his  men  and  was  able  to  find  kindred 
spirits. 

This  little  band,  well  armed  and  supplied  with 
abundant  ammunition,  disappeared  into  the  wilds  and 
were  quite  lost  sight  of  for  some  time.  After  a  few 
months,  however,  telegrams  were  received  at  Vladivo- 
stock from  St.  Petersburg,  to  the  effect  that  the 
Peking  government  had  complained  that  some  one 
was  killing  hundreds  of  Chinese  in  the  Amur  coun- 
try. On  investigation  it  was  found  that  the  snow  of 
the  whole  Vladivostock  region  was  simply  dotted 
with  dead  Chinamen.  The  captain  and  his  volun- 
teers had  gone  out  for  blood  vengeance  and  had 
killed  every  Chinaman  in  sight  or  that  they  could 
find. 

The  governor  called  the  American  in  and  told  him 
that,  much  as  he  regretted  it,  he  would  be  obliged  to 
arrest  him,  but  that  he  would  not  issue  the  order  for 
his  arrest  until  noon  of  the  next  day.     A  steamer 


A  PIONEEE  17 

was  leaving  for  Japan  that  evening  and  of  course  the 
old  man  took  the  hint  and  left  with  her. 

Korea  was  just  then  opened  and  it  was  most 
natural  that  this  adventurous  pioneer  should  seek 
new  fortunes  in  this  fresh  field.  That  is  how  we  got 
our  genial,  honest,  and  only  storekeeper,  who  was 
highly  appreciated  for  his  many  good  qualities  and 
his  general  usefulness  as  well  as  for  his  interesting 
eccentricities.  His  vivid  red  and  gray  beard  grew 
straight  out  around  his  ruddy  face  like  a  brilliant 
halo,  making  him  much  the  most  interesting  of  all 
of  us  foreigners  to  the  natives,  to  whom  all  western 
foreigners  were  interesting  in  those  early  days,  be- 
cause of  our — to  them — absurd  ways,  our  colouring, 
and  our  strange  dress. 

Before  long  an  American  minister  came  to  reside 
in  Seoul  and  the  captain,  with  a  keen  sense  of  the 
proprieties  and  with  not  a  little  experience  in  official 
matters,  from  his  long  residence  among  the  punctil- 
ious Russians,  prepared  to  do  the  proper  thing  and 
make  his  formal  call  at  the  new  legation. 

False  Teeth  Cause  Panic. — One  hot  July  day, 
therefore,  he  donned  a  ruffled  shirt,  white  tie,  even- 
ing dress  suit  and  silk  hat,  and  mounted  a  pony  to 
ride  the  long  twenty- five  miles  across  the  country 
and  its  sand  plains  to  the  capitol,  to  make  his  call. 
At  a  little  inn  situated  about  halfway  on  his  journey, 
he  stopped  to  eat  the  lunch  he  had  strapped  upon 
the  back  of  the  perspiring  coolie  who  led  his  slow 
paced  horse.  Now  these  inns  are  arranged  around  a 
courtyard,  across  the  rear  of  which  stands  the  house 


18  THINGS  KOEEAN 

proper  with  its  tile  roof  and  large  open  veranda-like 
room,  off  which  are  located  the  small  sleeping  rooms. 
The  sides  of  the  court  are  formed  by  the  kitchens 
and  servants'  quarters,  while  across  the  front  stands 
the  long  low  building  containing  the  stables,  with  a 
high  roofed  gate  in  the  centre. 

Seated  on  the  veranda  of  the  house,  our  traveller 
was  quietly  eating  his  lunch  while  his  pony  was  be- 
ing fed  in  the  stable  before  him.  One  by  one  the 
natives  flocked  in  on  one  pretense  or  another,  to  see 
the  strange  foreigner  eat  his  stranger  food.  Finally 
all  pretense  was  abandoned  and  the  whole  village, 
including  the  chance  passers  and  their  servants, 
crowded  into  the  court  to  see  the  strange  sight,  until 
the  space  was  simply  packed  with  a  quiet,  perspiring 
crowd  of  sightseers. 

The  meal  being  finished  the  red  bearded  foreigner 
reached  up  and  removed  his  false  teeth  for  cleansing 
purposes.  This  was  too  much  for  his  audience.  It 
was  a  thing  absolutely  unheard  of  by  them  as  yet 
and  far  beyond  their  comprehension,  that  a  human 
being  could  thus  take  himself  apart.  With  a  scream 
of  terror  and  the  common  call  upon  their  mothers, 
"  Ay  goo  Amonye,"  the  mass  struggled  to  get 
through  the  single  gate  and  away  from  a  being  who 
could  thus  dismember  himself,  lest  he  call  down  upon 
them  some  dire  fate  or  spell.  Soon  the  gate  was 
piled  high  with  writhing  forms  each  making  all  the 
noise  possible,  while  the  old  man  certainly  enjoyed 
the  unexpected  effect  of  his  casual  action.  From 
that  time  until  his  death  the  captain  enjoyed  even 


A  PIONEER  19 

more  of  the  native  attention  than  before,  and  he 
seemed  able  to  get  more  from  the  coolies  and  pony 
men  than  could  his  competitors  when  they  began  to 
locate  near  him. 


II 

THE  "BOY"  AND  THE  AMMAH 

The  Ammah  (pronounced  Ahmah)  is  a  most  useful 
institution  in  the  foreign  communities  of  Asia.  She 
is  primarily  the  children's  nurse,  though  she  is  just  as 
often  lady's  maid,  and  she  is  not  above  doing  duties 
that  properly  belong  to  the  boy  or  valet,  when  he  is 
missing. 

The  "  Boy." — This  boy,  who  may  be  a  man  of 
mature  years,  is  another  useful  member  of  the  house- 
hold, and  in  addition  to  his  general  duties  as  butler, 
valet,  waiter,  and  chambermaid,  he  is  sometimes 
called  upon  to  fill  the  place  of  the  absent  Ammah 
when  my  lady's  waist  needs  buttoning  in  the  back  or 
shoes  are  to  be  laced  or  unlaced.  He  has  even  been 
known  to  shampoo  and  brush  to  silky  softness  the 
tresses  of  his  mistress,  and  he  quietly  takes  his  place 
as  an  intimate  member  of  the  household  whose  inter- 
ests he  seems  to  have  at  heart,  providing  he  is  a 
good  specimen  of  his  class. 

One  lady  acquaintance  in  diplomatic  circles  was 
horrified  by  the  accidental  blundering  into  her  bath 
room  of  the  boy,  who  had  not  fully  completed  ar- 
rangements for  her  bath  and  was  bringing  her  fresh 
warm  towels,  not  knowing  that  she  was  even  then 
performing   her  ablutions.     Backing  hastily   out   in 

20 


THE  "BOY"  AND  THE  AMMAH         21 

response  to  her  shriek  he  called  back  in  a  pacifying 
tone  of  reassurance,  "  Never  mind,  missy,  we  all 
b'long  one  fambly." 

The  Ammah. — Our  first  experience  with  that  use- 
ful creature,  the  Ammah,  was  about  as  amusing  as  it 
could  well  be.  We  had  arrived  from  a  severe  Pacific 
voyage  of  twenty-five  days  to  find  that  in  Yokohama 
everything  seemed  topsyturvy.  The  boatmen  in 
'83  dispensed  with  clothing  very  largely  except  for 
a  large  loin  cloth  ;  ashore  the  men  served  as  horses, 
hauling  loaded  wagons,  while  others  drew  us  in  little 
carriages  like  overgrown  perambulators,  and  we  saw 
still  other  men  sitting  on  the  ground  sawing  boards 
from  a  log  suspended  above  them,  drawing  the  saw 
towards  them  in  cutting. 

Arrived  at  the  hotel  the  obliging  clerk  asked  if  I 
did  not  want  an  Ammah  for  my  wife  who  was  ill. 
This  was  a  new  word  but  as  he  offered  no  explana- 
tion and  as  it  sounded  so  like  llama,  I  thought  he 
was  speaking  of  this  mammalian.  I  therefore  con- 
cluded that  in  this  strange  land  where  men  served  as 
horses  llamas  might  be  used  in  the  place  of  cows,  and 
as  a  milk  diet  was  certainly  indicated  I  acquiesced 
and  asked  if  she  could  be  kept  on  the  place.  On  be- 
ing assured  that  the  hotel  had  regular  accommoda- 
tions for  them  I  asked  if  some  one  would  be  furnished 
to  do  the  milking. 

After  numerous  explanations  on  both  sides  the 
Ammah  was  duly  installed  and  she  became  a  fixture, 
while  no  llama,  not  even  a  cow,  directly  furnished  us 
our  milk,  which  came  out  of  a  can.    After  twenty- 


22  THINGS  KOEEAN 

five  years'  use  of  canned  milk  we  prefer  even  now  to 
use  the  evaporated  and  unsweetened  article  sold  in 
tins,  rather  than  run  the  risk  of  disease  from  using 
the  fresh  variety,  while  by  so  doing  we  avoid  all  trouble 
with  the  noisy  and  often  delayed  milkman  who 
seems  to  be  such  a  trial  to  some  of  our  acquaintances 
in  this  land  flowing  with  milk — if  not  with  honey. 


Ill 


A  NEW  YEAR'S  ADVENTURE  AND  A  STORY 
OF  ECONOMY 

A  part  of  the  refrain  of  a  recently  popular  song 
contained  this  promise : — 

"If  ye  work  all  day  ye'll  have  sugar  in  yer  tay." 

Few  tea  drinkers  in  America  would  consider  this 
a  luxury  to  strive  for,  sugar  being  considered  a  neces- 
sity by  those  who  take  it  in  their  tea.  There  are 
people,  however,  to  whom  this  bit  of  sweetness  is  con- 
sidered as  one  of  the  compensations  of  hard  labour 
and  pinching  economy. 

Riding  uneasily  at  anchor  in  a  Korean  harbour  in 
the  cold  gray  dawn  of  a  stormy  new  year's  morning, 
I  listened  to  the  cheerful  tale  of  a  woman's  struggle 
for  existence  in  a  foreign  land,  and  after  twenty 
years,  tea  still  tastes  better  with  its  regulation  sugar, 
for  knowing  what  a  luxury  it  was  to  that  one  woman, 
who  was  so  successful  in  earning  a  living  for  herself 
and  her  little  children  that  she  proudly  boasted  of 
the  fact  that  they  had  tea  every  day — and  sometimes 
they  had  sugar  in  it. 

She  was  an  Alsatian  who  had  gone  to  Japan  with 
her  husband, — an  artisan.     He  had  died  of  typhoid 

23 


24  THINGS  KOEEAN 

leaving  her  with  two  small  children.  In  time  she 
had  secured  employment  which  paid  her  fifteen  dol- 
lars (30  yen)  per  month.  This  was  enough  for  a 
Japanese  at  that  time,  but  it  was  a  meagre  pittance 
for  the  support  of  a  western  family  in  that  foreign 
land. 

She  hired  a  room  and  they  all  slept  in  one  bed. 
Everything  purchased  was  in  small  quantities  and 
for  a  definite  purpose. 

"  We  had  rice  and  fish,  and  salad  and  bread,  and 
sometimes  we  had  butter  on  our  bread,"  she  told  me. 

"  Every  day  we  had  tea  and  sometimes  we  had 
sugar  in  our  tea."  This  in  the  land  of  tea  and  in  a 
city  where  the  air  was  fragrant  almost  to  intoxication 
with  the  odour  of  tea  from  the  great  tea  firing  estab- 
lishments. 

"And  every  Sunday  we  would  go  to  the  hotel 
where  the  maitre  d'  hotel,  my  countryman,  would  let 
us  have  our  dinner,  with  a  glass  of  red  wine,  for  a 
small  price."  How  good  those  Sunday  dinners  must 
have  tasted  after  their  week's  fast. 

It  was  an  interesting  and  pathetic  story  told  that 
morning  as  we  watched  the  gray  dawn  dimly  light 
up  the  barren  Korean  hills  peeping  through  their 
thin  coating  of  snow. 

A  Chance  Acquaintance. — We  had  not  volun- 
tarily sat  up  to  exchange  experiences.  We  were 
merely  chance  passengers  on  a  very  small  Japanese 
steamer  making  the  six  days'  trip  from  Kobe,  via  way 
ports,  to  Chemulpo,  with  no  other  white  person  on 
board  aside  from  the  Scotch  captain  whose  quarters 


A  NEW  YEAK'S  ADVENTURE  25 

were  forward  in  a  house  on  deck.  We  had  dropped 
anchor  well  off  shore,  in  the  extensive  wind-swept 
harbour  of  Fusan  on  New  Year's  eve. 

The  cabins  were  below  deck  at  the  stern  of  the 
vessel  and  opened  off  the  little  salon.  This  salon 
was  simply  a  passageway  down  the  middle  of  the 
lower  deck  with  the  cabin  doors  opposite  and  the 
narrow  dining  table  extending  down  the  middle  of 
the  floor  space. 

A  New  Year's  Celebration.— We  had  retired 
early,  glad  to  exchange  the  gentle  roll  of  the 
anchorage  for  the  tempestuous  seas  of  the  Korean 
straits.  We  could  hear  occasional  bits  of  song  from 
the  forecastle  where  our  Japanese  crew  were  begin- 
ning the  celebration  of  the  incoming  year,  for  which 
purpose  they  had  brought  along  a  generous  supply 
of  sake.  As  midnight  approached,  however,  the 
festivities  increased  and  the  copious  libations  began 
to  tell.  With  the  stroke  of  midnight  and  the  advent 
of  the  new  year,  the  crew,  armed  with  pans  and 
kettles  from  the  galley,  began  to  drum  lustily  and  to 
march  about  the  ship  making  a  frightful  din.  Soon 
they  came  down  the  little  companionway  yelling  like 
demons  and  beating  their  tom-toms  as  though  all 
bedlam  had  broken  loose.  They  entered  the  large 
cabin  of  my  fellow  passenger,  and  her  shrieks  and 
those  of  her  children  added  to  the  general  uproar. 
Jumping  out  as  I  was,  thinking  that  some  crime  was 
being  committed,  I  was  eagerly  hailed  as  a  new  recruit 
and  our  tormentors  did  what  might  be  taken  for  a  scalp 
dance  around  us  while  the  poor  woman  on  her  knees 


26  THINGS  KOEEAN 

called  upon  all  the  saints  to  protect  her.  We  could 
not  understand  each  other's  language  but  we  saw  that 
the  intoxicated  revellers  wanted  us  to  drink  with 
them  and  join  in  the  festivities.  They  were  just 
drunk  enough  to  resent  our  reluctance  and  they  be- 
came ugly  at  our  refusal  to  join  them.  As  matters 
seemed  to  be  getting  rather  serious  a  steward  and 
cabin-boy,  who  seemed  to  retain  some  degree  of  in- 
telligence, finally  interceded  and,  on  some  pretext, 
got  the  crowd  up  the  companionway,  the  door  of 
which  we  promptly  barricaded ;  but  the  tears  and 
fright  of  the  foreign  woman  and  her  children  seemed 
to  stimulate  them  and  they  made  many  attempts  to 
affect  another  entrance,  so  that  we  put  on  all  our 
clothes  and  spent  the  remainder  of  the  night  pacify- 
ing the  children  and  trying  to  keep  warm  during  our 
vigil. 

It  was  then  that  the  poor  woman  confided  to  me 
the  cheerful  tale  of  her  little  economies  and  extrava- 
gances. 

Bad  weather  compelled  us  to  run  in  behind  some 
islands  and  lay  by  another  day  after  leaving  Fusan. 
From  this  pitching  unsteady  anchorage  the  little 
straw-thatched  huts  of  the  natives  on  the  lee  hillside 
of  the  island,  with  the  thin  smoke  curling  above 
them,  seemed  actually  inviting  at  our  distance. 
They  at  least  meant  warmth  and  quiet,  with  no  sea- 
sick qualms,  though  they  did  stand  for  an  economy 
so  rigid  that  the  story  of  my  fellow  passenger  seemed 
in  comparison  to  be  one  of  luxury  ;  for  in  the  case  of 
the  people  in  those  weather-worn  huts,  while  they 


A  NEW  YEAK'S  AD  VENTURE  27 

might  have  fish,  rice  and  salt,  so  far  from  the  stimu- 
lating tea  with  "  sometimes  sugar,"  it  was  simply  hot 
water  with  the  tea  entirely  left  out  and  sugar  an  un- 
known luxury. 


IV 
AN  ORIENTAL  BUNCO  GAME 

The  Koreans  are  of  a  confiding  nature.  They  are 
also  over  sanguine  and  inclined  to  espouse  schemes 
that  would  not  appeal  to  more  sophisticated  people. 

One  of  my  early  native  acquaintances  had  an  ex- 
perience in  this  line  which  is  quite  illustrative. 

He  and  a  few  friends  determined  to  prevent  all  the 
best  business  opportunities  from  going  into  the 
hands  of  foreigners  in  the  early  days,  by  occupying 
the  field  themselves.  As  the  operation  of  steamships 
appealed  to  them  as  likely  to  be  very  remunerative 
and  easy  of  control,  they  decided  to  establish  a  line 
of  ships  to  connect  their  country  with  Japan,  and 
thus  keep  this  profitable  undertaking  from  passing 
into  outside  hands. 

They  subscribed  and  paid  in  as  capital  stock  a  sum 
of  money  that  loomed  very  large  in  their  eyes  and 
such  as  would  buy  a  very  creditable  native  junk. 
This  sum,  twelve  hundred  thousand  cash,  was  equal 
to  $1,200  in  Japanese  money. 

My  friend  had  been  in  Japan  and  knew  the 
language,  therefore  he  was  intrusted  with  the  mission 
of  going  to  one  of  the  Japan  ports  to  purchase  their 
first  steamship. 

Arrived  at  Nagasaki  he  was  soon  made  acquainted 
28 


AN  OBIENTAL  BUNCO  GAME  29 

with  a  very  polite  and  entertaining  Japanese  who 
showed  him  the  sights  of  the  city,  wined  and  dined 
him,  and  for  several  days  carefully  avoided  any 
serious  talk  relating  to  business. 

After  some  days  of  this  careful  preliminary  work, 
so  characteristic  of  the  Oriental,  the  Japanese  began 
to  urge  upon  the  Korean  the  advisability  of  the 
latter's  people  undertaking  the  development  of  their 
country  themselves  lest  foreigners  usurp  the  field  and 
drain  the  land  of  its  resources. 

This  advice  had  great  effect  since  it  was  right  in 
line  with  the  opinions  held  (and  doubtless  unin- 
tentionally expressed)  by  the  Korean  himself  and 
bore  directly  upon  the  object  of  his  mission.  When 
it  had  been  given  ample  time  for  patient  assimilation, 
the  new-found  friend  proceeded  to  suggest  that  steam- 
ships seemed  to  offer  the  best  opportunities  for  such 
enterprise  as  he  had  suggested.  This  also  met  with 
hearty  approval  and  it  all  seemed  a  strange  coinci- 
dence to  the  Korean,  since  the  advice  of  his  genial 
friend  was  so  entirely  in  line  with  the  object  of  his 
own  mission. 

Further  discussion  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  agree- 
able Japanese  chanced  to  have  a  cousin  who  owned 
a  fine  large  steamer  which  he  might  be  prevailed 
upon  to  sell  since  the  illness  of  his  father  compelled 
him  to  remain  on  shore  and  caused  him  to  be  in 
need  of  ready  money.  On  enquiry  being  made  it 
developed  that  this  cousin  would  part  with  his  ship 
and  that  he  would  sell  it  for  $1,200,  which  was  just 
the  amount  the  Korean  had  to  pay. 


30  THINGS  KOEEAN 

All  necessary  preliminaries  having  been  arranged, 
the  Japanese  took  his  prospective  purchaser  on  board 
one  of  the  great  Peninsular  and  Oriental  ships  that 
ply  between  England  and  Japan,  and,  passing  him  off 
as  a  prince  who  was  making  his  first  visit  to  a  foreign 
ship,  they  were  kindly  received  and  shown  all  over 
the  vessel,  the  Japanese  acting  as  interpreter  and 
putting  into  the  mouth  of  either  party  the  kind  of 
words  he  wished  him  to  utter. 

The  inspection  having  proved  the  vessel  to  be  en- 
tirely satisfactory,  the  pair  went  ashore  where  a  bill 
of  sale  was  drawn  up  and  signed  by  the  reputed 
cousin.  The  money  was  paid  over  and  the  attentive 
Japanese  left  for  the  country. 

The  next  day  the  Korean  went  on  board  and 
ordered  the  captain  to  sail  for  Chemulpo.  It  re- 
quired the  services  of  a  policeman  to  rid  the  vessel 
of  the  importunate  Korean,  who  never  discovered 
the  whereabouts  of  his  genial  friend  and  who  never 
got  back  any  of  the  capital  stock  of  the  first  Korean 
steamship  syndicate. 


STEAMSHIP  TRAVEL  TO  AND  ABOUT  THE 

FAR  EAST 

Coral  Islands. — On  one  of  our  twelve  trans-Pa- 
cific voyages  we  had  as  a  fellow  passenger  a  senator  of 
the  United  States ;  and  for  his  benefit  the  ship  steamed 
close  to  that  wonderful  chain  of  atolls  or  coral  reefs, 
which  extends  our  boundaries  nearly  eighteen  hun- 
dred miles  west  of  Hawaii.  It  was  a  sight  never  to 
be  forgotten.  Some  of  these  formations  were  ac- 
tually mere  circular  reefs  with  the  spray  dashing  high 
on  the  windward  side  where  the  sharp,  flinty,  rock- 
like material  effectually  checked  the  continual  on- 
slaught of  the  waves,  while  inside  the  lagoon  the 
water  lay  peacefully  basking  in  the  sun  like  a  beauti- 
ful pale  green  crystal.  Other  reefs  had  accumulated 
sufficient  animal  and  vegetable  matter  at  some  one 
place  to  support  quite  a  little  vegetation,  which  with 
its  deep  tropical  green,  against  the  lighter  tint  of  the 
water,  backed  by  the  banks  of  white  surf  and  coral 
sand,  composed  a  general  picture  such  as  it  is  not 
often  the  lot  of  man  to  look  upon. 

These  lagoons,  lying  like  placid  gems  on  the  heav- 
ing breast  of  that  great  ocean,  seemed  so  quiet  and 
peaceful  as  to  be  just  suited  for  havens  of  refuge  for 
ships,  especially  as  each  had  a  more  or  less  conveni- 
ently placed  entrance.     One  such  island  is  now  used 

31 


32  THINGS  KOEEAN 

in  connection  with  our  trans-Pacific  cable,  but  this 
appears  to  be  the  only  one  of  the  group  where  condi- 
tions are  such  as  to  permit  of  utilization.  The  quiet 
water  in  the  lagoon  is  usually  too  shallow  for  ships 
and  the  low  lying  reefs  are  wind-swept  and  offer  little 
protection,  while  their  outer  work  is  so  dangerous 
that  ships  strive  to  give  them  a  wide  berth. 

Rat  Island. — We  were  told  that  one  of  these  is- 
lands was  so  infested  by  rats  that  it  was  dangerous  to 
land  there.  These  rats  had  gotten  ashore  from  some 
wreck  and,  subsisting  on  fish  washed  up  on  the  coral 
sand,  they  had  multiplied  until  no  other  living  thing 
could  exist  in  their  midst.  It  is  said  further  that  the 
crew  of  a  wrecked  vessel  were  destroyed  and  eaten 
by  these  rats  upon  making  their  escape  from  the  sea 
to  this  inhospitable  land.  This  may  have  been  but 
the  "  captain's  yarn,"  however. 

Summer  Seas. — Sailing  over  these  southern  sum- 
mer seas  with  not  enough  ship  motion  to  prevent 
daily  games  of  cricket  and  quoits,  and  with  access  to 
a  great  canvass  swimming  tank  on  the  main  deck, 
through  which  the  sea  water  kept  constantly  flowing 
to  a  depth  that  was  over  one's  head,  we  could  quite 
agree  with  the  Balboan  nomenclature  and  willingly 
give  to  this  vast  expanse  of  tropical  waters  the  title 
of  pacific. 

Atlantic  travellers  expect  too  much  of  the  Pacific 
perhaps  because  of  its  name.  It  has  its  moods  and 
some  of  them  are  ugly  and  spiteful.  I  once  heard  a 
Scotch  captain  exclaim  that  he  would  wish  an 
enemy  no  worse  fortune  than  to   be   consigned   to 


STEAMSHIP  TBAVEL  TO  THE  FAB  EAST    38 

the  nortii  Pacific  route  along  the  fog-swept  Aleutian 
islands. 

Bad  Coast  Weather. — This  ocean  seems  to  fret 
over  the  presence  of  large  bodies  of  land.  The  sea 
seems  always  to  behave  itself  worse  as  one  nears  the 
continent  of  America  or  Asia  (including  the  Japanese 
islands).  On  one  trip  we  left  San  Francisco  on  a 
Japanese  liner  when  a  gale  was  blowing  of  such  force 
as  to  cause  some  damage  on  shore.  Knowing  what 
to  expect  we  spent  the  time  in  stowing  away  our  be- 
longings and  preparing  for  the  fast  approaching  time 
when  we  would  care  more  for  the  quiet  of  our  bunks 
than  for  anything  to  be  seen  from  the  deck  of  the  ship. 

Some  of  the  tourists  to  whom  we  suggested  condi- 
tions that  we  thought  likely  soon  to  prevail  declared 
that  they  intended  to  see  the  Golden  Gate  no  matter 
what  happened.  They  saw  it.  They  also  saw  the 
staunch  ship  apparently  stop  in  its  course  as  it  met  a 
huge  sea  on  the  bar,  shake  its  head  for  a  moment  as 
though  indignant  at  such  interference  and  then,  like 
a  horse  taking  the  bit  in  its  teeth,  plunge  madly  into 
the  seething  race  of  rushing  waters,  where  it  kept  on 
its  course  but  with  violent  plunging  and  rearing. 

It  was  pitiful  to  hear  those  good  people  as  they 
abandoned  the  Golden  Gate  to  the  blanket  of  wet 
winds  and  dashed  for  their  cabins,  where  trunks  and 
valises  met  them  chasing  each  other  over  the  floor, 
so  that  it  was  dangerous  trying  to  do  more  than 
make  a  rapid  jump  into  a  berth.  One  elderly  couple 
near  us  dropped  into  their  bunks  as  they  were,  and 
when  later  we  got  the  stewardess  to  them  in  an  at- 


34  THINGS  KOEEAN 

tempt  to  relieve  their  loudly  proclaimed  misery,  she 
found  that  the  poor  woman  was  too  miserable  to 
have  her  bonnet  removed,  so  that  she  spent  the  night 
dressed  as  when  she  came  on  board.  This  weather 
continued  with  us  much  of  the  way  to  Honolulu  after 
which  the  sea  was  like  a  mill-pond  until  the  proxim- 
ity of  the  Japan  coast  was  reached. 

A  First  Voyage. — Our  first  Pacific  voyage  was 
made  on  the  old  City  of  Peking,  and  it  was  one  of 
the  worst  of  these  twelve  trips  as  the  last  one  was  the 
best.  On  this  first  voyage  in  1883  we  spent  twenty- 
five  days  out  of  sight  of  land.  A  full  passenger 
list  had  compelled  us  to  accept  a  cabin  right  in  the 
stern  of  the  vessel.  It  was  large  and  more  inviting 
than  the  others  while  the  ship  lay  in  dock,  and  we 
congratulated  ourselves  upon  our  good  fortune,  until 
we  realized  what  it  meant  to  try  to  be  comfortable  at 
the  end  of  that  tetering  ship,  where  we  got  all  the 
motion  up  and  down  side  ways  and  corkscrew,  as 
though  we  were  sitting  on  the  tail  of  some  great 
water  serpent  that  was  lashing  the  elements  in  anger. 
Then  every  time  the  ship  would  poise  on  the  crest  of 
a  mountain  of  water  or  fling  its  stern  high  in  the  air 
as  it  plunged  down  the  other  side,  the  screw  would 
go  whirling  madly  through  the  air  right  under  our 
cabin,  leading  us  to  believe  that  everything  in  the 
machinery  line  had  gone  to  smash,  and  afterwards  as 
the  stern  sank  and  the  propeller  began  churning  up 
the  waters  again,  while  everything  loose  rushed  stern- 
wards,  it  seemed  that  we  were  surely  headed  for  the 
bottom  stern  foremost.     The  whole  passage  was  one 


STEAMSHIP  TEAVEL  TO  THE  FAE  EAST    35 

long  delirious  nightmare  from  which  relief  seemed 
only  temporary. 

Three  subsequent  voyages  were  made  on  the  old 
Oceanic  for  the  reason  that  she  had  her  cabins 
built  up  amidships.  In  fact  she  was  an  old  Atlantic 
liner  and  was  one  of  the  first  to  have  her  cabins  ar- 
ranged in  this  manner  at  the  hub  instead  of  the  cir- 
cumference of  the  circle  of  motion.  Both  these  old 
ships  are  now  of  the  past  and  comment  upon  them 
is  allowable. 

Strange  Japan. — Our  anchorage  in  the  harbour  of 
Yokohama  at  the  end  of  this  first  voyage  was  event- 
ful. We  had  read  much  of  the  new  Japan.  We  had 
met  cultivated  Japanese  as  students  at  American 
colleges. 

Our  anticipations  were  high.  When  we  found  our 
ship  surrounded  by  scores  of  little  sampans  sculled 
about  by  men  dressed  only  in  a  loin  cloth,  it  seemed 
there  must  be  some  mistake.  Had  we  not,  in  those 
tempestuous  seas,  missed  our  way  and  brought  up  at 
some  south  sea  island  ?  Surely  this  could  not  be  the 
Japan  of  our  fancy.  Twenty-five  years  have  worked 
great  changes  in  the  country,  however,  and  regula- 
tions now  compel  the  wearing  of  sufficient  covering. 
These  regulations  are  sometimes  enforced  in  the 
wrong  place  as  in  the  case  of  the  young  daughter  of 
a  diplomatic  official  residing  in  Tokio.  The  child 
was  out  riding  with  her  little  arms  bare  as  were  her 
legs  from  the  top  of  her  summer  socks  to  her  knees. 
She  was  arrested  for  violating  the  ordinance  in  re- 
gard to  the  wearing  of  clothing. 


36  THINGS  KOREAN 

An  Eventful  Voyage — One  fateful  voyage  we 
made  in  1889  on  the  Port  Augusta,  a  tramp  ship 
employed  by  The  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  while 
their  present  fine  vessels  were  being  built. 

She  was  a  long  piratical  looking  craft  that  had 
only  made  two,  unsatisfactory,  trips  on  that  route 
prior  to  the  one  when  we  were  with  her,  which 
proved  to  be  her  last,  as  she  was  taken  off  the  line  as 
unsuitable.  She  had  a  small  house  built  on  the  after 
deck  for  the  entire  passenger  accommodation.  This 
house  besides  furnishing  a  row  of  small  cabins,  held 
a  little  dining  salon  which  was  also  writing  and 
lounging-room.  Two  tables  and  a  sideboard  occu- 
pied most  of  the  space,  while  there  were  divans  along 
the  sides  which  could  be  used  when  meals  were  not 
being  served.  The  vessel  had  been  built  for  the 
Australian  trade  and  the  dining  salon  was  finished 
in  marble,  which  may  have  been  suitable  for  those 
waters  but  was  decidedly  out  of  place  when  we  neared 
the  Aleutian  islands  where  the  ever-present  fog  was 
condensed  on  the  cool  walls  and  the  marbleized  steel 
ceiling,  so  that  the  consequent  dripping  made  every- 
thing seem  moist  and  clammy  inside  the  salon. 

A  Grewsome  Sight. — We  had  five  hundred  Chinese 
steerage  passengers  below  decks,  many  of  them  in 
feeble  health  after  a  life  of  hardship  and  privation  in 
America,  and  then  on  their  way  to  their  own  loved 
land  to  die.  As  usual  the  steamship  company  had  to 
contract  to  take  them  home,  the  schedule  of  charges 
definitely  stating  the  price  for  a  fresh  corpse  and  for 
others  of  mature  age  down  to  dry  bones.     On  the 


STEAMSHIP  TKAVEL  TO  THE  FAE  EAST    37 

lines  running  out  of  San  Francisco  I  had  seen  the 
bodies  of  Chinamen  who  had  died  on  the  voyage 
preserved  by  the  injection  of  arsenic,  but  on  this 
tramp  steamer  there  was  no  such  arrangement,  though 
the  tickets  of  the  Chinese  steerage  bore  an  agreement 
to  the  effect  that  their  bodies  should  be  carried  on  to 
China  in  case  they  died  at  sea.  The  close  air  of  the 
hold  and  the  violent  motion  of  the  vessel  were  too 
much  for  some  of  the  enfeebled  old  men  and  they  be- 
gan to  die.  The  dead  were  placed  in  boats  hanging 
on  davits  along  the  ship's  side,  one  of  which  boats 
hung  opposite  our  cabin,  and  whenever  the  ship  rolled 
we  would  look  into  that  ghastly  boat-load  directly  in 
front  of  our  cabin  windows. 

The  weather  was  as  bad  as  could  be  imagined. 
Gale  succeeded  gale  and  the  seas  were  lashed  to  a 
fury  that  was  appalling.  It  was  cold  and  wet  and  too 
cloudy  for  an  observation  to  ascertain  our  position. 
All  cargo  had  been  shut  out  from  the  'tween  decks 
to  make  room  for  the  more  profitable  Chinese  steer- 
age, which  made  the  ship,  as  the  captain  said,  "  like 
a  bladder  on  the  water,"  she  was  so  light,  for  we  had 
only  a  small  cargo  of  flour.  As  a  result  of  the  pitch- 
ing and  tossing  and  the  churning  of  the  screw  in  the 
air,  some  part  of  the  machinery  broke  down  and  we 
drifted  for  three  days  along  the  Aleutian  islands. 

St.  Elmo's  Fire. — I  was  asleep  when  this  break 
occurred  one  night.  It  chanced  to  be  a  clear  night, 
the  rain  had  ceased  and  the  stars  were  shining 
though  the  sea  ran  as  high  as  ever.  When  aroused 
by  my  wife's  alarm  at  the  sudden  quiet,  I  looked  out 


38  THINGS  KOBEAN 

of  a  port  towards  the  forward  part  of  the  ship  and  to 
my  amazement  saw  a  ball  of  fire  at  every  point.  The 
yards  were  tipped  with  fire  and  the  masts  were 
topped  with  it ;  a  ball  of  fire  hung  from  every  rope's 
end  and  studded  every  projection.  On  enquiry  I 
learned  that  it  was  a  fine  display  of  St.  Elmo's  fire, 
an  electrical  disturbance  sometimes  seen  and  certainly 
one  most  startling  to  behold  for  the  first  time  at  the 
dead  of  night  on  a  disabled  ship  drifting  on  such 
wild,  tempestuous  seas. 

To  make  matters  worse  the  first  mate  broke  his 
leg  and  the  captain,  harassed  by  loss  of  sleep  and 
anxiety  over  his  inability  to  make  schedule  time 
with  his  ship,  became  afflicted  with  melancholia  so 
that  he  had  to  be  locked  in  his  cabin. 

A  Mutiny. — While  matters  were  in  this  dismal 
condition  more  Chinamen  died  and  the  boats  being 
already  full  of  bodies  it  was  decided  that  the  new 
corpses  must  go  over  the  side.  This  caused  a  mutiny 
among  the  hundreds  of  survivors  and  an  officer  called 
me  out,  and  on  learning  that  I  had  a  revolver,  in- 
formed me  of  the  trouble,  and  stated  that  as  I  had  a 
family  on  board  they  would  expect  me  to  do  my  full 
duty.  He  placed  me  at  the  hatchway  and  told  me 
not  to  let  a  Chinaman  get  on  deck,  but  that  if  the 
steward  came  up  first  it  would  mean  that  all  was 
satisfactory. 

It  was  an  anxious  watch  which  ended  by  the 
grateful  appearance  of  the  steward.  He  had  yielded 
and  arranged  to  pickle  the  other  bodies  and  stow 
them  somewhere  out  of  sight.     The  machinery  was 


STEAMSHIP  TRAVEL  TO  THE  FAR  EAST    39 

repaired,  the  captain  recovered,  the  seas  calmed 
down ;  we  got  a  fresh  supply  of  water  by  distillation, 
as  that  in  the  tanks  had  been  churned  about  so  as  to 
have  taken  on  a  coffee  colour  from  the  rust  washed 
off,  and  but  for  a  serious  shortage  of  food  we  would 
have  considered  ourselves  in  very  good  condition. 

Short  Rations We  had  only  been  provisioned 

for  a  passage  of  fourteen  to  sixteen  days  and  as  the 
voyage  lasted  twenty-five  days,  the  last  few  of  these 
found  us  subsisting  largely  on  bread  made  from  our 
small  cargo  of  flour.  One  morning,  however,  we  pas- 
sengers sitting  in  our  marble  cabin  and  nursing  rav- 
enous appetites,  saw  to  our  amazement  a  fine  boiled 
ham  placed  on  the  sideboard.  We  did  not  wait  for 
the  lunch  hour  or  for  any  one  to  carve  it,  but  getting 
some  bread  we  made  it  into  sandwiches  and  eagerly 
devoured  it  then  and  there.  One  of  my  little  boys 
was  so  hungry  that  he  growled  like  a  dog  as  he  ate 
his  sandwich,  seeming  to  fear  some  one  might  take 
it  from  him.  It  was  fortunate  we  did  not  stand  on 
ceremony,  for  the  ham  was  the  private  property  of 
the  captain,  and  had  been  kept  by  him  until  this 
time  of  emergency  when  he  seemed  to  think  he  had 
better  eat  it  than  take  it  on  as  the  present  it  was  in- 
tended to  be. 

We  have  made  two  later  trips  on  the  fine  new 
ships  of  this  line  and  found  everything  delightful  ex- 
cept the  foggy  weather  to  be  expected  on  that  north- 
ern route. 

What  a  delight  it  was  after  this  stormy  twenty-five 
days  to  awaken  one  crisp  morning  and  look  out  upon 


40  THINGS  KOREAN 

great  Fujiyama  rearing  its  snow-clad  peak  high  above 
us  and  seeming  in  the  unusually  clear  air,  to  be  near 
enough  to  reach  in  a  short  walk.  How  the  surviving 
Chinese  did  sacrifice  to  the  spirits  of  the  water  for 
their  safe  arrival  in  harbour !  The  bay  was  white 
with  the  paper  money  they  threw  overboard,  while 
the  decks  were  adorned  with  numbers  of  beautifully 
browned  ducks  and  sucking  pigs,  which  they  bought 
ashore  and  had  had  roasted  by  their  countrymen  for 
the  great  sacrifice  on  board.  They  ate  the  sacrificial 
baked  meats  and  gave  the  spirits  of  the  water  the 
imitation  money,  thus  pleasing  themselves  and  the 
spirits  at  the  same  time.  They  undoubtedly  needed 
the  meats  more  than  did  the  spirits. 

One  memorable  trip  over  this  route  was  made  on 
the  great  cargo  ship  Minnesota,  with  the  Japanese 
Peace  Commission  en  route  to  Portsmouth,  as  fellow 
passengers.  This  vessel  is  so  large  that  she  seems  to 
experience  no  appreciable  effect  from  the  motion  of 
the  sea  other  than  the  gentle  swell  of  the  deeper 
water.  Cabin  windows  take  the  place  of  port-holes 
since  the  passenger  accommodations  are  in  a  large 
house  high  up  on  deck  a  little  to  the  forward  part  of  the 
ship.  One  item  of  her  freight  on  the  way  over  from 
America  was  said  to  have  been  fifty-seven  railway 
locomotives.  Naturally  the  racks  were  never  placed 
on  the  tables  and  flowers  stood  in  glasses  on  the 
window  sills  as  safely  as  they  would  in  a  residence 
on  shore. 

Chinese  Stewards. — One  comfort  of  this  Pacific 
travel  is  the  Chinese  cabin-boy.     Only  those  accus- 


STEAMSHIP  TEAVEL  TO  THE  FAR  EAST    41 

tomed  to  his  ministrations  can  realize  the  excellence 
of  a  Chinese  servant.  Quiet,  attentive,  and  always 
on  hand,  he  is  the  ideal  attendant  for  a  sea  trip  as  he 
is  also  for  a  habitation  on  land. 

A  Tip On  one  such  trip  we  had  as  a  fellow  pas- 
senger a  missionary  and  his  family  from  the  interior 
of  China.  The  wife  and  children  were  ill  and  re- 
quired a  great  deal  of  attention,  which  was  cheerfully 
given  by  the  cabin-boy  to  whose  care  that  particular 
stateroom  fell.  When  the  voyage  was  ended  the 
missionary  explained  to  the  servant  that  he  desired 
to  do  something  to  reward  him  for  his  faithfulness. 
The  "  boy  "  took  on  a  willingly  receptive  manner, 
which  soon  disappeared,  however,  when  he  realized 
that  the  expected  reward  was  nothing  but  a  basket  of 
empty  medicine  bottles.  The  donor  had  lived  long 
in  the  heart  of  China  where  bottles  have  a  value  and 
are  prized  as  a  servant's  perquisite ;  he  seemed  to  for- 
get that  the  market  in  San  Francisco  might  not  be 
so  good. 

Tips  are  now  about  the  same  as  on  the  Atlantic. 
The  cabin-boy,  table-boy  and  stewardess,  where  there 
is  a  lady,  should  be  given  five  yen  ($2.50)  for  each 
person,  the  bath-boy,  boots,  and  others  being  tipped 
in  proportion  to  the  services  rendered.  Considering 
the  length  of  the  voyage  this  is  cheaper  than  the 
rates  that  prevail  on  the  Atlantic. 

Free  Baths. — On  the  trip  over  to  Japan  once,  we 
had  a  young  man  making  his  first  trip  at  sea.  He 
was  going  out  as  a  missionary  and  his  clothes  were 
the    regulation    weight   worn    in    college.     As    we 


42  THINGS  KOREAN 

neared  the  tropics  he  became  more  and  more  uncom- 
fortable and  finally  decided  that  however  extravagant 
he  must  have  a  bath.  He  mustered  up  courage  and 
enquired  of  the  rather  gruff  purser  the  price  of  a 
bath.  On  learning  that  they  were  free  and  to  be  had 
on  demand,  he  seemed  to  spend  much  of  the  rest  of 
the  voyage  in  making  up  for  the  baths  he  had  lost 
during  the  earlier  part. 

A  Typhoon. — Bad  as  is  the  Pacific  at  times  it  is 
greatly  to  be  preferred  to  the  more  shallow  and  con- 
fined waters  of  China  and  Japan  in  typhoon  season. 

A  typhoon  is  a  circular  storm  akin  to  the  cyclone. 
Should  a  ship  get  caught  in  the  centre  of  this  storm 
she  would  probably  perish,  but  in  these  days  warn- 
ings are  given  of  the  approach  of  these  storms  and 
the  vessels  try  to  seek  safety  by  getting  out  of  the 
path  of  greatest  danger. 

In  1884  I  was  in  the  long  narrow  harbour  of 
Nagasaki  on  board  the  Nanzing,  en  route  from 
Shanghai  to  Chemulpo.  A  typhoon  was  reported 
coming  up  the  coast  and  our  Scotch  captain,  not 
wishing  to  be  caught,  as  he  described  it,  "  like  a  rat 
in  a  hole,"  steamed  out  for  the  open  water.  We 
caught  the  storm  in  the  narrow  straits  of  Korea  and 
our  ship  suffered  considerable  damage.  It  took 
thirty-six  hours  to  make  the  thirteen  hours'  run  to 
Fusan.  The  captain  was  lashed  to  the  bridge  and 
the  two  other  passengers  and  myself  stuck  to  our 
bunks  though  our  cabins  were  awash  with  the  fre- 
quent seas  we  shipped. 

My  furniture  was  on  board  and  I  had  been  told  we 


STEAMSHIP  TEAVEL  TO  THE  FAE  EAST    43 

had  little  other  cargo.  Somehow  in  my  delirium, 
when  the  screw  went  grinding  about  out  of  water,  I 
got  the  idea  that  it  was  a  new  brass  and  iron  bed- 
stead we  had  bought  in  Shanghai  and  of  which  we 
were  quite  proud.  Just  how  or  why  the  bed  had 
been  set  up  on  its  castors  I  did  not  stop  to  consider, 
but  it  seemed  as  the  screw  went  rolling  about  making 
its  horrible  noise,  that  it  was  that  beautiful  brass  bed- 
stead rolling  over  the  empty  hold. 

Returning  a  month  later  for  my  family,  in  passing 
through  Nagasaki,  I  saw  the  awful  wreckage  wrought 
by  the  typhoon  which  swept  up  that  long  narrow 
inlet.  Great  ships  which  we  had  seen  staunchly 
riding  at  anchor  were  at  that  time  well  up  on  the 
beach,  broken  and  apparently  worthless.  One  such 
I  remember  was  a  fine  sailing  ship,  The  Western  Belle t 
which  when  we  sailed  out  of  the  harbour,  was  flying 
the  homeward  pennant  after  having  discharged  her 
cargo  of  lumber,  reloaded,  and  been  cleaned  and 
painted  for  the  homeward  trip.  On  this  return  she 
was  seen  on  her  side,  a  very  dishevelled  belle  lying 
well  up  on  the  beach,  apparently  fit  for  nothing  but  junk. 

Thousands  of  natives  were  said  to  have  lost  their 
lives  in  this  storm  and  we  had  occasion  to  thank  our 
intrepid  captain  for  his  sagacity  and  courage  in  getting 
out  where  he  would  have  a  chance  to  fight. 

War-ship  Travel. — On  several  occasions  we  made 
this  trip  from  Japan  to  Korea  on  one  of  our  naval 
vessels  sent  for  the  purpose,  and  it  seemed  very  odd 
to  be  consulted  as  to  when  we  would  like  to  start, 
and  to  have  the  ship  slow  down  or  increase  her  speed 


U  THINGS  KOEEAN 

in  order  that  we  might  arrive  at  a  suitable  time.  This 
was  the  perfection  of  sea  travel  except  that  our  pres- 
ence crowded  and  inconvenienced  the  officers,  and 
caused  the  commander  to  give  up  his  comfortable 
cabin  for  our  use. 

China  Coast  Travel. — Travel  on  the  British  coast- 
ing vessels  and  river  ships  in  the  early  days  was  de- 
lightful. Every  one  was  supposed  to  bring  along  his 
personal  servant,  and  to  the  luxuries  furnished  by  the 
ship  would  be  added  the  fresh  fruit  and  delicacies 
brought  on  board  by  these  well-to-do  and  hospitable 
foreign  residents. 

On  a  trip  up  the  Yangtze,  in  1883,  we  had  a  great 
bedroom  with  a  four-post  double  bed  and  mosquito 
curtains.  It  was  like  an  admiral's  quarters.  Foreign 
passengers  were  few  and  they  were  comfortably  quar- 
tered on  the  forward  part  of  the  ship,  away  from  the 
odours  of  the  densely  packed  Chinese  steerage  which 
occupied  the  after  part.  These  people  were  stowed 
away  on  shelves  one  above  another  and  seemed 
happy,  for  a  Chinaman  dearly  loves  the  companion- 
ship of  his  kind.  They  were  much  given  to  travel 
and  naturally  contributed  largely  to  the  profits  of  the 
owners  of  the  vessels. 

Pirates. — One  little  reminder  that  there  might  be 
another  side  to  this  picture  of  comfort  framed  by  our 
luxurious  quarters,  was  the  presence  of  a  row  of  muskets 
that  stood  in  a  rack  around  the  mast  where  it  passed 
tip  through  the  main  salon.  It  was  not  uncommon  for 
pirates  to  attack  these  ships,  particularly  on  the 
southern  waters.     Sometimes  a  band  of  them  would 


STEAMSHIP  TEAVEL  TO  THE  FAE  EAST    46 

take  passage  among  the  unsuspecting  native  steerage 
passengers,  and  at  the  chosen  time  they  would  arise 
and  kill  off  the  crew,  beach  and  loot  the  vessel  and 
make  their  escape, 

Saigon Once  we  went  up  the  winding  river  to  the 

quaint  city  of  the  French  possessions,  Saigon,  which  is 
a  miniature  Paris  on  the  Anamese  flats.  Sometimes 
the  French  liner  would  brush  the  trees  with  her  stern 
while  her  bowsprit  would  extend  over  the  other  bank 
of  the  stream  in  making  a  sharp  turn.  We  were 
entertained  here  by  one  of  the  wealthy  residents  of 
Saigon,  and  were  surprised  at  the  formal  dinner  to 
see  a  Siamese  cat  mount  the  table  as  though  some 
such  feat  were  expected  of  her.  She  walked  daintily 
about  smelling  of  things,  but  never  interfering  with 
anything.  She  was  so  well  bred  that  she  would  only 
eat  from  her  own  dish,  and  must  have  her  regular 
food  prepared  of  chicken  and  rice.  It  would  have 
been  a  distressing  experience  for  a  Korean,  since 
Koreans,  as  elsewhere  explained,  faint  at  the  sight  of 
a  cat  at  table. 

In  Saigon  the  restaurants  and  hotels  have  their 
dining-rooms  located  under  awnings  on  the  pave- 
ment, or  on  a  veranda  in  front  of  the  house,  where 
one  may  enjoy  the  cool  air  of  the  morning  or  even- 
ing and  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  richly-dressed 
passers-by.  The  hot  midday  is  given  up  for  sleeping 
and  as  we  did  not  know  of  this  we  came  very  near 
missing  our  ship  as  we  could  get  no  carriage  and 
only  secured  the  services  of  some  Anamese  jinricksha 
men  with  great  difficulty. 


46  THINGS  KOREAN 

Shanghai  and  Hongkong — While  Shanghai  is 
most  impressive  for  its  volume  of  business  and  broad 
level  roads  lined  with  massive  buildings,  it  is  flat  and 
low  lying,  whereas  Hongkong  is  built  upon  the  hill- 
sides, with  only  a  strip  of  level  ground  along  the 
water  front.  It  therefore  shows  up  splendidly,  every 
house  seeming  to  stand  out  in  its  luxuriant  gardens. 
It  is  backed  by  a  high  hill  or  mountain,  called  the 
Peak,  which  now  has  a  cog  railway  giving  access  to 
the  homes  and  pleasure  resorts  at  the  summit,  from 
which  one  gets  a  wonderful  view  of  land-locked  water 
and  hill.  The  public  gardens  here  and  at  Saigon 
and  Singapore  are  well  worthy  of  a  visit. 

Russian  Ships Travel  over  the  China  and  Japan 

seas  is  now  done  largely  in  Japanese  vessels,  but 
prior  to  the  recent  war  between  Japan  and  Russia 
we  made  several  trips  across  the  Yellow  Sea  on  the 
Russian  ships.  Although  some  of  these  were  large 
and  comfortable  they  did  not  seem  to  be  as  well  kept 
up  as  did  the  old  time  British  vessels.  We  encoun- 
tered some  strange  customs  on  board  these  Russian 
steamers,  one  being  the  separation  of  the  sexes.  My 
wife  was  put  in  a  cabin  on  one  side  of  the  ship  while 
I  was  assigned  one  on  the  opposite  side.  This  was 
inconvenient  as  our  belongings  were  not  packed 
separately  and  besides,  we  preferred  to  share  a  cabin. 
It  took  a  great  deal  of  persuasion  and  a  reference  to 
the  captain  before  we  could  arrange  matters  satis- 
factorily. In  fact  we  had  to  get  the  consent  of  all 
the  other  women  passengers  before  the  matter  could 
be  arranged  to  suit  us. 


STEAMSHIP  TRAVEL  TO  THE  PAR  EAST    47 

Fire  Water. — On  another  of  these  ships  we  sat 
down  to  one  of  those  excellent  meals  for  which  the 
Russians  are  justly  famed.  We  had  a  stack  of  plates 
before  us,  and  as  one  course  was  finished  the  top 
plate  would  be  removed,  leaving  a  clean  one  for  the 
next  course.  My  companion  desiring  a  drink, 
reached  for  a  caraffe  in  front  of  her  stack  of  plates 
and  poured  out  what  she  supposed  was  a  glass  of 
water.  I  noticed  that  the  captain  seemed  surprised 
and  concluded  that  he  wondered  at  her  taking  water 
with  no  corrective  in  it.  However  as  she  seemed 
about  to  drink  it  he  called  loudly  for  the  steward, 
who  spoke  English,  at  the  same  time  using  a  vigor- 
ous sign  language  which  halted  the  goblet  before  the 
beverage  had  been  tasted.  We  were  then  informed 
that  the  clear  fluid  she  had  taken  for  water  was 
vodka,  the  Russian  drink  of  the  strength  of  brandy. 

The  stack  of  plates  on  these  Russian  tables  re- 
minded me  of  the  early  days  when  the  British  coast- 
ing vessels  served  food  from  double  decked  plates 
with  hot  water  in  the  space  between  the  top  and 
bottom,  held  in  by  a  cork  in  the  rim.  This  arrange- 
ment kept  the  food  hot  while  bringing  it  from  the 
galley  or  the  serving  table. 

A  Tourist  Route. — Formerly  it  was  a  four  or  six 
days'  trip  from  Yokohama  or  Kobe  to  Chemulpo. 
Now  all  that  is  changed.  Instead  of  the  stuffy  little 
Japanese  coast  vessels  that  made  this  trip  the  most 
objectionable  part  of  the  journey  from  America  to 
Korea,  one  may  go  by  rail  from  Tokio  or  Yokohama 
to  Seoul  or  Chemulpo,  with  only  a  night's  experience 


48  THINGS  KOREAN 

on  the  water  in  crossing  the  Korea  straits  from  Shim- 
onoseki  to  Fusan  on  a  fine  large  and  comfortable 
steamer. 

From  Fusan  one  makes  the  journey  to  Seoul  in  a  day 
over  a  standard  gauge  railway  with  cars  either  of  Amer- 
ican build  or  patterned  after  the  American  cars.  A 
creditable  meal  is  served  in  the  dining  car  while  the 
train  speeds  past  ancient  ruined  temples  perched  on  dis- 
tant mountainsides,  past  hamlets  picturesque  enough 
at  a  distance,  with  every  now  and  then  a  glimpse  of 
some  white  clad  native  squatting  on  an  elevation  and 
stolidly  smoking  his  long  pipe,  while  gazing  with  ap- 
parent indifference  at  the  remarkable  foreign  innova- 
tion that  has  robbed  his  land  of  its  quiet  seclusion, 
and  caused  the  ill-kept  roads  to  grow  up  with  grass 
and  weeds  for  lack  of  the  old  time  travel. 

From  Chemulpo  the  tourist  may  embark  on  a 
twenty-hour  journey  across  the  Yellow  Sea  to  Chefoo, 
Port  Arthur,  or  Dalny,  from  which  last  named  place 
the  Russian  built  road  connects  with  Europe.  Or 
the  traveller  may  go  on  by  rail  to  Peking  and  thence 
south  to  Hangkow  by  the  newly  built  Chinese  rail- 
way, whence  the  ride  down  the  Yangtse  River  to 
Shanghai  will  be  a  great  delight. 

It  is  a  delightful  journey,  at  the  proper  season,  to 
go  from  America  to  Japan,  then  to  Korea  and  across 
to  Dalny,  thence  on  to  Peking  and  down  to  Shanghai 
by  way  of  Hangkow  and  the  river,  then  on  by  way 
of  Hongkong,  Singapore,  Columbo  and  the  Suez 
canal.  But  the  pleasantest  trip  we  ever  made  was 
by  way  of  the  Russian  railway  from  Dalny  through 


STEAMSHIP  TRAVEL  TO  THE  FAR  EAST    49 

Manchuria  and  Siberia  to  St.  Petersburg  and  on. 
This  may  now  be  done  from  Seoul  by  way  of  the 
new  Japanese  railway  to  the  northern  border  of 
Korea,  where  a  construction  railway,  which  now 
serves  to  connect  this  road  with  the  Russian  built 
Manchurian  road,  will  soon  give  place  to  one  suita- 
ble for  travel,  so  that  the  traveller  may  go  from  Yoko- 
hama or  Tokio  to  all  parts  of  Europe,  with  no  sea  travel 
except  the  short  ferry  across  the  Korean  straits  from 
Shimonoseki  to  Fusan. 


VI 

A  RAMBLE  IN  COUNTRY  AND  TOWN 

As  seen  from  the  deck  of  a  ship  the  Korean 
coast  looks  bleak,  barren,  and  generally  uninviting. 
This  is  just  as  the  natives  desired  it  should  look,  for 
when  they  were  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  the 
Hermit  Nation,  they  permitted  no  intercourse  with 
the  outside  world  except  at  two  places,  and  even 
there  under  strict  restrictions.  In  order  not  to  tempt 
outsiders  to  desire  to  land  and  enter  their  country, 
the  peasants  were  permitted  to  cut  off  all  trees  and 
shrubbery  from  the  hillsides  facing  the  sea,  thus  giv- 
ing the  coast  lands  a  dreary  and  cheerless  appearance 
not  likely  to  tempt  the  few  passers  to  care  to  pene- 
trate into  such  a  forbidding  looking  land. 

Just  persevere,  however,  and  cross  that  bold  ridge 
beyond  yonder  desolate  stretch  of  mud  flat,  and  the 
chances  are  that  quite  a  different  impression  will  be 
gained,  for  it  probably  shields  a  wooded  hillside  and 
comfortable  hamlet  from  the  wintry  blasts  off  the 
sea,  while  a  rich  rice  plain  may  occupy  a  far-reach- 
ing valley,  terraced  up  with  little  grassy  dykes,  as 
high  on  the  hillside  as  compatible  with  obtaining  a 
supply  of  water  for  irrigation.  The  usual  brook  to 
be  found  in  a  valley  is  sometimes  tapped  for  this 
purpose,  well  up  on  the  higher  ground,  and  the  water 

50 


A  RAMBLE  IN  COUNTRY  AND  TOWN     51 

is  then  led  to  the  uplying  paddy  fields,  from  which 
it  is  let  off  upon  those  lower  down.  Sometimes  this 
requires  the  construction  of  a  long  irrigating  ditch, 
such  as  may  be  seen  in  the  environs  of  Seoul ;  for 
the  successful  culture  of  rice  indicates  the  possession 
and  employment  of  no  small  degree  of  skill  and 
diligence  in  the  business  of  farming. 

The  Koreans  are  essentially  an  agricultural  people 
and  they  are  capable  farmers,  though  by  no  means 
as  successful  as  are  the  diligent  Chinese,  who  rent 
ground  of  the  Koreans  and  then  succeed  in  making 
a  living  from  selling  farm  products  to  the  natives 
themselves. 

Bulky  farm  produce  will  not  bear  distant  shipment 
except  by  boat,  for  roads  in  Korea  are  apt  to  be 
mere  bridle-paths,  since  wheeled  vehicles  are  rare 
and  land  transportation  is  mostly  by  pack, — bulls, 
ponies,  men  and  women  making  up  the  pack-trains. 
There  are  of  course  some  main  roads  which  a  little 
attention  would  convert  into  creditable  thorough- 
fares, but  these  are  few  and  far  between. 

Bridges  and  Floods. — Travellers  are  always  amused 
to  find  that  in  Korea  the  bridges  are  taken  away  just 
when  most  needed,  in  order  to  keep  them  from  being 
carried  off  by  the  floods.  But  bridges  in  this  land 
are  really  only  meant  for  fine  weather,  which  means 
about  ten  months  in  the  year.  They  are  temporary 
structures  which  are  removed  on  the  approach  of  the 
rainy  season,  otherwise  they  would  be  swept  away. 
Every  one  expects  to  be  inconvenienced  during  the 
rainy  season,  and  so  desirable  is  it  to  have  a  generous 


52  THINGS  KOEEAN 

downpour,  that  no  one  is  likely  to  complain  about 
a  little  inconvenient  wetting.  At  such  times  boats 
are  usually  to  be  found  for  hire  at  a  bridge  site,  or  if 
the  water  is  shallow  and  crossed  by  stepping-stones 
ordinarily,  there  will  be  men  within  call  who  will 
leave  their  work  and  carry  the  pedestrian  over  for  a 
small  compensation.  Usually  the  people  who  are 
not  mounted  will  expect  to  wade. 

Country  Aristocracy. — Occasionally  in  journeying 
along  one  of  these  winding  paths  one  passes  the 
somewhat  pretentious  country  place  of  one  of  the 
noble  class,  with  its  adjacent  grove  of  trees  shelter- 
ing the  burial  site  of  the  family  ancestors,  and  inci- 
dentally beautifying  a  whole  hill  or  mountainside. 

An  air  of  prosperity  and  contentment  seems  to 
pervade  the  hamlet  of  the  retainers  of  this  dignitary 
who  stands  between  them  and  the  rapacious  officials 
from  the  capital.  It  is  a  pretty  picture  of  a  sort  of 
feudal  condition,  and  the  children  of  this  lord  show 
in  their  aristocratic  bearing  the  pride  of  birth  which 
links  them  to  the  comparatively  few  families  of  dis- 
tinction in  the  land,  most  of  whom  seem  to  know, 
or  to  be  related  to,  one  another. 

Korea  is  a  small  and  insignificant  land  but  she 
represents  an  ancient  civilization  which  made  her  the 
schoolmaster  of  Japan.  It  is  not  surprising  that 
pride  of  birth  and  descent  should  have  become  one 
of  the  marked  traits  of  these  simple-minded  people, 
shut  up  in  their  hermit  land  for  so  many  centuries, 
quite  content  with  what  could  be  produced  within 
their  own  borders  and  only  asking  to  be  left  alone  in 


A  EAMBLE  IN  COUNTRY  AND  TOWN      53 

their  seclusion.  This  condition  could  not  but  inspire 
an  exaggerated  idea  of  the  importance  of  their  own 
land  and  all  that  pertained  to  it,  especially  as  to  the 
attributes  of  their  ruling  classes. 

The  Sky-line. — But  to  return  to  the  country 
itself.  Eastward  from  the  deck  of  a  ship  at  Chemulpo 
may  be  seen  a  peaked  and  turreted  sky-line,  like  the 
ridge  of  a  gabled  and  towered  house,  looming  well 
above  the  place  where  Seoul  is  pointed  out  to  be. 
With  a  glass  one  may  see  a  little  white  dot  in  a  de- 
pression between  two  of  the  highest  of  these  peaks. 
This  dot  is  the  opening  in  one  of  the  gates  of  the 
ancient  mountain  fortress  known  as  Poukhan.  It 
was  with  the  capture  of  this  place  of  refuge  that  the 
Manchus  secured  possession  of  the  royal  women  of 
Korea  in  1637,  and  thus  compelled  the  ruler  to 
capitulate.  He  was  safe  in  still  another  fortress.  So 
plucky  was  this  defense  that  the  Manchus,  who  had 
already  conquered  China  (which  is  still  in  their  control) 
did  not  compel  the  men  of  Korea  to  wear  the  queue 
or  the  women  to  bind  their  feet,  contenting  themselves 
with  the  exaction  of  a  mere  nominal  expression  of 
vassalage  to  the  Manchus  as  their  sovereign  lords. 
This  claim  persisted  until  it  was  finally  exploded  by 
the  Japanese  as  the  result  of  their  successful  war 
with  China  in  1894. 

A  Mountain  Fastness. — From  Seoul  it  is  but  a 
day's  pleasant  journey  to  and  from  this  historic  place 
of  refuge.  Though  there  are  other  places  of  interest 
that  might  be  quite  as  pleasing,  perhaps  a  short 
description  of  this  and  the  road  leading  to  it  may  be 


54  THINGS  KOKEAN 

as  illustrative  as  a  description  of  any  locality  in  the 
environs  of  Seoul. 

One  road  to  this  resort  leads  directly  up  to  the  gate 
between  the  peaks,  before  mentioned,  and  involves  a 
rather  stiff  climb.  This  is  a  good  way  for  the  return, 
but  in  going  it  is  better  to  fare  farther  and  pass 
around  the  mountain  and  in  through  a  more  gradual 
incline. 

A  good  carriage  road  leads  from  the  West  Gate  of 
Seoul  through  two  passes  in  an  outlying  spur  of  the 
mountain  ridge  which  forms  a  part  of  the  background 
for  Seoul.  Just  off  this  road,  over  the  first  pass,  lies 
a  well  watered  valley  surrounded  by  wooded  moun- 
tainsides, known  as  the  valley  of  the  lilies.  It  is  of 
course  a  burial  reservation,  the  whole  valley  and  in 
fact  all  the  land  in  sight,  being  kept  for  the  post 
mortem  home  of  the  family  of  a  prince. 

Lilies — Formerly  the  ground  in  this  locality  was 
literally  covered  with  wild  lilies  of  the  valley,  which 
gave  the  place  its  name  with  us  Western  foreigners. 
The  blossoms  were  luxuriant  and  perfect,  and  it  was 
a  shame  to  destroy  them,  but  native  boys  finding  we 
would  buy  them,  took  to  gathering  them  in  such  a 
careless  manner  that  the  plants  were  practically  des- 
troyed. Patches  of  these  delicate  lilies  may  fre- 
quently be  found  in  Korea.  I  have  eaten  my  lunch 
sitting  by  a  great  bed  of  them  that  seemed  to  extend 
for  acres  over  the  hillside.  In  fact  it  is  a  land  of 
flowers,  some  of  which  are  very  fragrant,  and  there 
seems  to  be  some  of  them  in  blossom  from  snow  till 
snow. 


A  EAMBLE  IN  COUNTBY  AND  TOWN      55 


The  rapid  mountain  torrents  that  sweep  the  hill- 
sides during  the  rainy  season  bring  down  vast  quan- 
tities of  sand-like,  disintegrated  granite,  which  is  de- 
posited over  quite  a  plain  at  times,  destroying  vegeta- 
tion and  producing  a  miniature  desert,  indicating  the 
urgent  need  of  some  forestry  rules  and  regulations. 
Crossing  such  a  sand  plain  the  route  to  Poukhan  leads 
off  to  the  right  through  a  grove  of  old  pines  which 
gracefully  arch  over  the  road  in  a  delightfully  cool 
and  inviting  manner.  Grassy  banks,  sloping  up  to 
well-kept  graves,  make  a  comfortable  resting  place 
and  indicate  the  reason  for  the  existence  of  this  well- 
kept  grove  of  ancient  trees.  Somebody's  ancestors 
have  this  beauty  spot  reserved  for  their  use,  and  their 
descendants  keep  it  in  order. 

Picturesque  Surroundings. — Towards  the  west  ex- 
tends a  wide  plain  with  quite  a  growth  of  pine  and 
oak  backed  by  a  high  ridge,  over  which  in  the  even- 
ing the  declining  sun  spreads  a  colouring  of  rare 
tints  such  as  is  seldom  to  be  seen  elsewhere.  Even 
the  commonest  Korean  pony  boy  as  he  conducts  his 
train  of  two  or  three  ponies  through  these  picturesque 
glades  on  his  return  from  packing  fuel  to  the  city, 
will  break  into  song,  though  he  may  not  realize  that 
it  is  the  quiet  beauty  of  the  scene  that  so  affects  him. 
His  song  is  apt  to  begin, — 


m 


N-N 


3 


T^a 


mm~& 


Ah  rey  rong,  ah  rey  rong,  ah  rah  rey  oh-o, 


56  THINGS  KOEEAN 

and  very  musical  it  is  as  heard,  unseen,  through  the 
trees. 

In  the  early  summer  these  hillsides  resound  with 
the  cuckoo's  call,  and  frequently  I  have  been  sud- 
denly arrested  by  the  song  of  a  lark  as  he  would 
shoot  straight  into  the  upper  air  and,  fluttering  there, 
pour  forth  a  flood  of  melody  as  though  his  very  heart 
would  burst  with  the  joy  of  his  surroundings.  Even 
the  chair  coolies  would  stop  talking  to  listen  to  the 
song. 

Great  white  or  gray  herons  would  rise  lazily  from 
the  rice-fields,  or  maybe  a  white  stork  would  go  sail- 
ing majestically  away  with  but  an  occasional  flap  of 
its  wings,  as  though  flying  to  it  were  but  coasting 
down  aerial  hills.  Magpies  there  will  be  in  plenty, 
and  they  will  follow  and  scold  us  in  a  sociable 
way. 

Soon  our  route  will  be  over  a  mere  winding  moun- 
tain path,  taking  us  ever  higher  and  higher  along  a 
bubbling  stream  of  sparkling  water.  Farmers  eking 
out  a  living  from  a  patch  of  land  reclaimed  from  the 
stony  mountainside  for  the  culture  of  cotton,  beans 
or  peppers,  will  stop  to  watch  us  pass,  glad  of  the  lit- 
tle diversion  this  chance  meeting  brings  into  their 
lives.  Possibly  it  will  be  a  band  of  men  and  women 
in  mud  and  water  to  or  above  their  knees,  planting 
or  working  their  rice,  in  which  case  we  will  receive 
little  attention  aside  from  some  joke  sprung  by  the 
jester  of  the  party,  for  such  work  as  rice  planting  is 
too  engrossing  to  allow  of  sightseeing. 

In  the  autumn  the  straw  thatched  huts  of  these 


A  RAMBLE  IN  COUNTRY  AND  TOWN      57 

toilers  will  take  on  a  brilliant,  harvest  holiday  hue, 
from  the  heavy  layer  of  crimson  peppers  placed  there 
to  dry  in  the  sun.  For  a  rice  diet  requires  the  use 
of  much  condiment  in  order  that  the  over-distended 
stomach  may  be  spurred  on  to  duty.  Peppers,  there- 
fore, enter  largely  into  the  Korean  dietary. 

A  Petty  Aristocrat. — On  our  left  we  pass  a  ham- 
let of  poor  but  comfortable  straw  thatched  houses, 
each  with  its  surrounding  wall  of  earth  or  brush  for 
the  seclusion  of  the  women.  Rising  imposingly 
above  these  straw  roofs  is  one  of  tile,  covering  a  more 
pretentious  building  situated  on  higher  ground. 
From  the  compound  gate  of  this  establishment  may 
be  seen  emerging  the  petty  official  controlling  this 
particular  district.  Great  round,  slightly  smoked 
eye-glasses  proclaim  his  scholarly  attainments ;  jade 
ornaments  on  his  head  band  announce  him  to  be  of 
official  rank,  as  does  the  fact  that  his  gown  is  split  up 
the  back  to  the  girdle  and  swings  aside  in  the  breeze, 
while  the  gowns  of  his  peasant  neighbours  are  con- 
tinuous. His  stride  is  the  very  essence  of  composed 
superiority,  swaying  from  side  to  side  as  should  be 
the  case  with  one  so  accustomed  to  sitting  cross- 
legged  and  pondering  over  the  printed  page. 

What  dignity  enshrouds  this  little  lord  as  he  makes 
his  stately  progress  over  his  tiny  domain,  bearing  a 
long  stemmed  pipe  which  he  cannot  hope  to  light 
himself  because  of  the  shortness  of  his  arms  in  com- 
parison to  the  length  of  the  stem,  necessitating  a  pipe 
bearer  to  do  the  lighting.  He  represents  and  em- 
bodies in  himself  the  majesty  of  the  law  and  he  it  is 


58  THINGS  KOKEAN 

to  whom  all  questions  are  referred  for  elucidation  or 
judgment. 

He  is  as  proud  and  as  conscious  of  his  power  and 
dignity,  and  is  as  satisfied  with  the  little  world  en- 
circled by  yonder  hills  and  mountains,  as  is  the  great 
dog  by  his  side,  with  bushy  tail  curled  over  his  back 
and  eye  alert  for  any  trespass  on  the  part  of  his  par- 
ticular subjects — the  curs  of  the  neighbourhood.  The 
latter  dart  through  the  dog  holes  cut  in  the  house 
doors,  through  which  they  discreetly  eye  the  big  fel- 
low as  he  passes  along  with  his  master,  to  whom  the 
villagers  pay  respectful  obeisance  and  seem  grateful 
for  a  condescending  word  in  return. 

These  simple-minded  people  know  there  is  land 
beyond  those  hills ;  that  there  is  other  land  even  be- 
yond the  eastern  seas.  They  may  have  been  to  the 
capital  and  seen  the  strange  men  from  these  distant 
lands,  who,  having  heard  of  the  greatness  of  Korea 
have  travelled  many  days  and  nights  over  those  seas 
from  less  favoured  lands,  to  share  the  joys  of  life  in 
the  land  of  Chosen. 

They  have  their  quarrels  and  their  sorrows,  they 
also  have  their  simple  joys.  They  have  a  warm 
place  in  which  to  sleep ;  they  are  not  hungry,  and 
they  have  their  ever-present  pipe  with  an  occasional 
cup  of  wine.     They  have  contentment. 

What  a  pity  it  seems  that  our  so-called  civilization 
must  enter  and  disturb  this  dream. 

Formerly  an  ambitious  youth  could  study  and  ac- 
quire the  written  character  and  a  knowledge  of  the 
classics,  after  which  he  could   enter  the  state  ex- 


A  EAMBLE  IN  COUNTRY  AND  TOWN      59 

aminations  and  on  passing  them,  secure  promotion 
to  the  greatly  desired  official  class.  Not  even  the 
post  of  prime  minister  was  beyond  his  reach.  What 
more  could  be  desired  ? 

It  is  not  surprising  that  they  should  now  resent  being 
absorbed  by  a  race  they  have  long  despised,  the  his- 
tory of  whose  intercourse  with  their  land  is  written 
in  blood,  and  whose  subjects  care  not  for  ancient 
Korean  customs  and  but  little  for  native  rights,  while 
respect  for  age  and  rank  is  quite  neglected. 

Poor  Koreans,  you  have  waited  too  long.  Perhaps 
had  your  land  been  tossed  and  riven  by  earthquakes 
and  volcanoes  you  might  have  been  shaken  out  of 
your  contented  sleep.  But  while  you  slept  and 
dreamed  and  cared  for  naught  but  to  be  let  alone, 
your  ancient  enemy  has  been  busy  learning  the  arts 
of  those  strange  folk  you  see  even  now,  wending 
their  way  up  your  ancient  path  to  yon  fortress  o 
your  ancestral  kings.  Having  learned  these  arts  she 
has  even  vanquished  one  of  her  teachers,  and  you, 
once  a  teacher  but  now  a  decrepit  old  ex-officio, 
what  can  you  hope  for  when  your  land  is  wanted  by 
your  energetic  erstwhile  pupil.  The  sleep  is  o'er,  the 
dream  is  done  and  now  comes  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence amidst  competition  keen  and  sharp. 

Winding  about  through  hamlets,  groves,  cultivated 
fields  and  over  wild  rocky  hillsides,  our  road  has  been 
paralleled  by  a  ridge,  surmounted  by  a  wall  of  ma- 
sonry, connecting  the  city  wall  with  the  fortress 
proper.  This  was  built  in  ancient  times  for  protection 
against  incursions  along  the  route  from  China,  for  a 


60  THINGS  KOEEAN 

part  of  our  road  was  over  the  main  highway  from 
Seoul  to  Peking.  This  wall  served  its  purpose  in  the 
days  before  the  use  of  firearms.  In  the  low  lying 
part  of  the  fortress,  also  protected  by  a  high  wall, 
there  is  a  great  gate  through  which  we  enter  to  the 
mountain  fastness  proper. 

The  landscape  changes  little  on  passing  through  this 
gate  and  we  go  on  ever  higher,  following  the  brook 
which  becomes  more  boisterous,  boiling  and  foaming 
around  great  masses  of  rock  that  have  fallen  and  ob- 
structed but  have  not  been  able  to  stop  its  course. 
Beautiful  clear  basins  of  water  have  thus  been  formed, 
just  the  place  apparently  for  trout  and  most  inviting 
for  a  plunge  on  a  hot  day. 

Pleasure  Pavilions. — Little  tile  roofed  pleasure 
pavilions  are  built  out  over  this  brook,  with  open 
sides  protected  by  carved  railings  of  wood,  and  af- 
fording delightful  resting  places  where  in  the  spring- 
time one  may  feast  on  the  view  of  vast  hillsides 
covered  with  the  pink  fluff  of  the  densely  growing 
wild  azalea. 

The  presence  of  these  pavilions  indicates  the 
nature-loving  instincts  of  the  natives  who  erected 
them,  and  lest  their  memory  be  forgotten  they  have 
caused  to  be  erected  near  by,  massive  stone  tablets 
bearing  their  names  and  sometimes  a  verse  of  poetry 
commemorative  of  the  beauties  of  the  surroundings. 

In  the  heart  of  the  depression  higher  up,  sur- 
rounded by  lofty  peaks  rising  still  higher,  nestles  a 
group  of  temple  buildings  where  foreigners  some- 
times spend  the  summer,  while  on  higher  elevations, 


A  EAMBLE  IN  COUNTRY  AND  TOWN      61 

seemingly  hanging  to  the  mountainside,  are  clumps 
of  large  buildings  used  as  palaces  on  occasions 
when  royalty  was  obliged  to  flee  for  refuge  to  this 
place. 

When  I  first  went  to  Korea  the  use  of  these  moun- 
tain fastnesses  had  not  been  abandoned  owing  to  the 
introduction  of  modern  ideas  and  methods,  in  fact 
one  of  these  places  of  refuge  was  actually  used  in 
1 884  for  the  succour  of  an  American  naval  officer  who 
was  travelling  in  the  interior. 

In  preparation  for  any  emergency  these  places 
were  kept  provisioned  for  a  siege,  while  being  well 
watered  they  could  support  some  cattle  and  produce 
quite  a  crop  of  vegetables. 

A  Place  of  Refuge. — When  necessary  the  royal 
refugees  would  be  borne  over  a  private  way  from  the 
city  along  a  ridge  of  granite  sand  up  the  steep  sides 
of  the  outer  aspect  of  the  resort  and  through  one  of 
the  gates  away  up  in  the  cloud  line.  Soldiers  with 
picks  would  soon  demolish  the  ridge  so  that  pursuit, 
such  as  it  was  in  the  olden  time,  would  be  difficult, 
and  men  stationed  on  the  battlemented  walls  above 
would  be  able  to  guard  the  place  with  comparative 
security. 

From  one  of  these  gates,  on  a  clear  day,  Chemulpo 
may  be  seen  with  a  glass,  twenty-five  miles  distant  by 
road,  while  the  great  Han  River  lies  between  like  a 
ribbon  of  silver 'winding  in  and  out  for  forty  miles 
between  hill  and  mountain,  before  meeting  oblivion 
in  the  Yellow  Sea  that  stretches  off  to  the  horizon. 

Just  outside  and  to  the  right  of  this  gate,  which  is 


(52  THINGS  KOREAN 

the  little  dot  seen  from  Chemulpo,  there  hangs  a 
small  temple  on  the  face  of  the  cliffs  in  front  of  a 
long  cave  with  a  wonderful  spring  of  water  at  its 
farther  end.  Water  seems  to  be  the  one  thing  most 
to  be  desired  after  climbing  to  this  place  and  such  soft, 
cool,  limpid  water  as  that  which  bubbles  from  this 
spring  is  seldom  met  with.  It  is  supposed  to  possess 
medicinal  qualities  which  tempts  people  to  make  the 
ascent  and  stop  at  the  temple  with  its  shelves  con- 
taining hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  little  buddhas. 
Certainly  the  exercise  and  water,  together  with  the 
air  and  view  are  enough  to  improve  one's  physical 
condition  even  if  disease  is  not  cured  thereby. 

On  the  descent  from  this  temple  the  grooms  hold 
the  horses  by  the  tail  rather  than  by  the  bridle  and 
the  trip  home  may  be  done  in  one-third  the  time 
taken  for  the  ascent.  Even  high  up  among  the 
rocks  where  it  would  seem  to  be  accessible  only  to  a 
bird,  natives  may  be  seen  gathering  fuel  among  the 
stunted  little  bushes  growing  there. 

No  Seclusion. — In  Asia  it  seems  difficult  to  get 
away  from  people.  Go  out  into  the  wildest  place, 
climb  a  ridge  and  crawl  up  a  gully,  then  just  as  you 
feel  that  at  last  you  are  alone  and  may  throw  up  your 
hat  and  hurrah  all  to  yourself,  you  are  likely  to  look 
up  and  catch  the  stolid  eyes  of  a  native  gazing  upon 
you  as  though  wondering  what  sort  of  fire-wood  you 
are  looking  for.  This  is  apt  to  get  on  one's  nerves 
at  times,  and  it  is  a  vastly  more  serious  matter  in 
densely  populated  China,  where  one  may  get  out-of- 
door  privacy  only  by  accident  and  then  not  often. 


A  RAMBLE  IN  COUNTRY  AND  TOWN     63 

Paper  Making. — After  climbing  down  for  some 
time  habitations  begin  to  appear,  the  first  being  those 
of  the  paper  makers  working  out-of-doors  making  a 
paper  that  is  like  parchment,  and  very  greatly- 
prized  in  China  and  Japan,  for  use  in  writing  state 
documents.  They  use  the  bark  of  the  mulberry 
chiefly,  and  macerate  it  in  spring  water  with  wood 
ashes  until  it  is  a  gray  mass  of  pulp  ;  they  then  spread 
it  on  little  bamboo  mats  like  window  screens,  layer 
upon  layer.  After  the  pile  has  drained  sufficiently, 
the  layers  are  separated  and  dried  in  the  sun  and 
later  ironed  smooth.  Like  the  other  manufactures 
of  the  country,  this  is  done  at  home  by  the  people 
whose  ancestors  spent  their  lives  doing  the  same 
until  the  various  movements  are  like  second  nature 
to  them. 

Another  bubbling  brook  accompanies  us  as  we  go 
down,  with  its  cool  pools  and  picturesque  pavilions 
placed  where  the  finest  views  are  to  be  had.  Lower 
down  the  hillsides  are  terraced  and  set  out  to  peach, 
apricot  and  pear  trees,  hedged  in  with  rows  of  cherry 
bushes,  with  here  and  there  a  fine  wax-like  persim- 
mon-tree, or  it  may  be  an  English  walnut. 

Persimmons. — In  the  springtime  it  is  quite  the  thing 
to  go  out  to  these  fruit  groves  and  see  the  blossoms, 
though  the  autumn  also  has  its  attractions  when  the 
frosts  have  dropped  the  leaves  and  the  great  red  per- 
simmons are  still  hanging.  This  is  the  grafted  per- 
simmon such  as  is  now  grown  in  Florida  and  Cali- 
fornia from  cuttings  sent  from  Korea  and  Japan.  It 
is  a  delicious  fruit  to  eat  fresh,  while  it  is  also  pre- 


64  THINGS  KOEEAN 

served  after  the  manner  of  figs  and  if  well  done,  it  is 
quite  as  good  as  a  fig.  In  appearance  it  resembles  a 
large  red  tomato,  when  ripe. 

Seoul. — Entering  Seoul  by  its  highest  gate,  well 
up  in  a  depression  in  the  mountain  ridge,  a  long 
white  road  is  seen  winding  down  into  the  city,  which 
is  sufficiently  distant  to  present  a  very  attractive  ap- 
pearance with  its  abundance  of  foliage  and  its  masses 
of  tiled  or  weathered  thatch  roofs.  The  sombre  tints 
of  the  mass  of  low  lying  native  houses  are  relieved 
by  the  brightly-painted  work  of  the  lofty  palace 
buildings,  while  the  buildings  of  the  foreign  legations 
and  the  French  cathedral,  capping  eminences,  stand 
out  strikingly  and  relieve  the  general  monotony. 

In  the  streets  themselves  there  is  little  that  is  at- 
tractive aside  from  the  kaleidoscopic  effect  of  the 
colouring  displayed  in  the  gowns  of  the  men,  women, 
and  children.  The  shops  are  mere  little  booths  in 
front  of  the  dwelling  or  work-room.  There  are  no 
sidewalks,  and  ponies,  bulls,  carts,  street-cars,  and 
people  all  mingle  together  in  the  sandy  dust  or  thin 
mud. 

A  Street. — To  a  Korean  a  street  is  but  a  way  from 
place  to  place.  It  has  heretofore  seemed  to  need  no 
particular  attention  since  the  rains  wash  away  the 
filth,  and  at  any  rate,  any  one  of  consequence  will  of 
course  be  borne  in  a  chair  or  on  a  saddle,  if  necessity 
compels  him  to  move  abroad,  and  now  that  the 
Americans  have  brought  the  street-car,  even  the 
coolies  may  ride. 

According  to  old  custom  it  would  not  be  wise  to 


A  RAMBLE  IN  COUNTRY  AND  TOWN      65 

beautify  the  exterior  or  street  face  of  the  buildings 
since  that  would  simply  tempt  thieves  to  the  property 
of  the  man  so  prosperous  as  to  thus  publicly  pro- 
claim his  prosperity.  Therefore  a  dilapidated  row  of 
buildings  along  the  street,  some  of  them  propped  up 
to  prevent  the  heavy  tiled  roof  from  falling,  may  en- 
close a  set  of  very  nice  houses  with  large  park-like 
grounds  studded  with  lotus  ponds,  clumps  of  large 
trees,  shrubs  and  grassy  lawns. 

Artistic  Compounds. — I  have  in  mind  while 
writing  this,  one  such  compound  that  I  have  often 
visited  and  seen  its  wealth  of  beautiful  carved  wood 
indoors,  and  carved,  weather-worn  stone  outside, — all 
reached  through  a  dirty  alley  leading  off  a  dirtier 
street. 

One  of  these  better  class  establishments  is  well 
worth  a  visit.  The  great  high  roofed  gate  with 
keeper's  lodge  alongside,  opens  into  a  courtyard  sur- 
rounded by  the  stables.  In  this  court  the  sedan 
chair  of  a  lesser  official  is  put  down  while  the 
occupant  will  pass  through  a  little  side  door  in  the 
great  inner  gate.  Should  he  be  of  sufficient  im- 
portance the  great  gate  itself  will  be  opened  for  him, 
and  if  he  is  of  still  more  importance  the  gate  will  be 
opened  to  the  accompaniment  of  sundry  loud  calls, 
and  a  vast  amount  of  squeaking  of  the  hinges,  as  he 
is  actually  borne  right  through  in  his  chair.  In  the 
case  of  an  intimate  of  still  greater  rank  and  im- 
portance the  chair  and  its  occupant  are  borne  into  still 
another  court,  this  time  a  large  ornamental  one  into 
which  the  host's  apartments  open  and  beyond  which 


66  THINGS  KOREAN 

are  the  quarters  of  the  women  with  their  pretty- 
flower  gardens,  where  these  secluded  creatures  get 
the  only  exercise  vouchsafed  them,  since  they  are  too 
exalted  to  go  upon  the  streets  even  at  night  except 
in  a  closed  chair. 

A  Gentleman's  House. — Inside  the  host's  quarters 
a  set  of  two  or  four  little  eight-foot  rooms  are  so 
arranged  that  the  whole  may  be  thrown  into  one 
large  room  by  lifting  up  the  doors  if  of  one  style,  or 
sliding  them  back  as  is  the  common  manner.  The 
floor  is  covered  with  a  rich  oil  paper  that  looks  like 
brown  marble,  only  it  is  nice  and  warm  from  the 
flues  underneath  so  that  if  one  has  come  in  stiff  from 
a  chair  ride  in  zero  weather,  his  stockinged  feet, 
from  which  a  servant  at  the  door  has  removed  the 
shoes,  begin  to  warm  up  most  agreeably. 

Great  mirrors  sometimes  cover  as  much  as  one 
side  of  a  room.  Clocks  and  an  ornamental  cabinet 
or  two,  together  with  painted  or  embroidered  screens 
make  up  the  furniture,  with  mats  on  the  warm  floor 
on  which  to  sit  and  smoke,  and  where  the  host  lies 
down  and  sleeps  when  the  time  comes,  for  this  is  bed- 
chamber and  everything  in  the  way  of  living-room. 
The  walls  are  covered  with  white  paper,  as  is  the 
ceiling  and  the  several  sets  of  latticed  windows. 

These  houses  are  all  of  one  story  and  cover  a  great 
deal  of  ground.  The  compound  of  the  American 
Legation  which  was  our  comfortable  home  for  many 
years,  covers  three  and  a  half  acres  of  ground  and 
was  one  of  those  purely  Korean  establishments,  from 
the  grounds  of  which  numbers  of  buildings  had  to 


A  EAMBLE  IN  COUNTRY  AND  TOWN      67 

be  removed  or  joined  to  others,  in  order  to  suit 
Western  ideas  and  give  space  for  lawns.  The  native 
architecture  was  preserved  as  far  as  was  possible  to 
the  intense  delight  of  visitors  of  an  artistic 
temperament,  who  never  fail  to  lavish  praise  over  the 
effect  of  the  beamed  and  raftered  ceilings  fully  ex- 
posed, with  neat  white  paper  between  the  rafters. 

However  humble  the  hut  of  the  peasant  or  coolie 
it  always  has  its  tight  little  sleeping  room,  the  stone 
and  cement  floor  of  which  with  its  rich  brown  oil 
paper  covering,  is  kept  nicely  warmed  by  the  little 
fire  necessary  for  cooking  the  rice  twice  daily.  In 
this  respect  these  people  fare  better  than  do  their 
neighbours,  for  the  Japanese  houses  are  notoriously 
cold,  and  a  fire  pot  for  warming  the  fingers  is  the 
only  native  system  of  heating,  while  the  Chinese 
never  are  warm  in  the  raw  cold  of  winter.  They 
have  no  means  of  heating  their  houses  other 
than  by  a  warmed  stone  bed  which  is  used  in  the 
north,  but  in  the  raw  cold  of  the  central  portion  the 
houses  are  absolutely  unheated  and  the  people  simply 
add  more  clothing  in  order  to  warm  up. 

The  English  traveller,  Henry  Norman,  was  strong 
in  his  praise  of  the  beautiful  country  he  passed 
through  in  making  a  journey  across  Korea,  while  as 
to  the  capital,  Seoul,  after  he  had  visited  Peking  he 
wrote  that,  compared  with  Peking,  Seoul  is  a  para- 
dise. 


VII 
A  SEOUL  NIGHT  AND  A  REVOLUTION 

Our  first  mail  by  the  newly  organized  Korean 
post  chanced  to  be  Christmas  mail  and  it  was  lost. 
The  first  post-office  was  destroyed  by  a  mob  which 
held  the  city  in  terror  for  some  time  after  the  out- 
break of  the  bloody  emeute  of  December  4,  1884. 

Conservative  Koreans  did  not  look  with  favour 
upon  foreign  innovations,  one  of  the  most  marked  of 
which  was  the  establishment  of  the  post-office. 

We  had  only  been  in  Korea  a  few  months  when 
this  outbreak  of  conservatism  took  place.  I  had 
been  dining  out  across  the  city  that  evening,  at  the 
quarters  of  two  of  my  American  friends  who  were 
stopping  in  Seoul.  One  was  a  business  man  who 
still  makes  Korea  his  profitable  home,  the  other  was 
a  naval  officer  there  on  special  duty. 

A  Peaceful  Scene. — Returning  through  the  quiet 
streets  in  the  crisp  cold  moonlight,  with  the  dry 
snow  crunching  under  foot,  the  scene  was  so  peace- 
ful and  homelike  that  I  planned  accompanying  my 
wife  out  for  a  stroll.  A  residence  in  China  had  made 
us  cautious  about  walking  together  through  streets 
swarming  with  inquisitive  and  rude  Asiatics.  We 
did  not  then  realize  the  different  and  more  agreeable 
conditions  that  prevailed  in  our  new  home,  where 

68 


A  SEOUL  NIGHT  AND  A  KEVOLUTTON    69 

foreigners  might  wander  at  will  with  no  fear  of 
molestation.  This  quiet  night  seemed  to  be  just 
suited  for  seeing  the  sights  of  the  city  to  which  we 
had  come  to  make  our  home. 

It  was  a  silent  night  city.  No  whistles  or  passing 
cars  disturbed  the  quiet.  Not  a  single  vehicle  on 
wheels  rolled  by.  The  only  equipage  to  be  seen  was 
the  chair  of  an  official  swinging  noiselessly  past,  while 
the  hoof  beats  of  the  horse  of  a  mounted  official 
speeding  to  or  from  the  palace,  made  no  noise  on  the 
unpaved  streets.  One  might  hear  the  distant  rat- 
tap-tap  of  the  ironing  stick  wielded  by  some  woman 
whose  work  was  .keeping  her  busy  long  into  the 
hours  devoted  to  feminine  freedom :  the  cry  of  a 
restless  infant,  the  barking  of  dogs,  or  the  bray  of  a 
donkey,  with  the  occasional  uproar  caused  by  the  in- 
cantations of  the  native  healers  in  some  house  of 
affliction,  were  the  only  other  noises  to  be  heard  and 
even  they  were  remote  from  the  street. 

No  fixed  lamps  or  lighted  windows  illuminated  the 
almost  deserted  thoroughfares  lined  with  blank  walls 
of  houses  or  enclosures.  The  only  lights  to  be  seen 
were  those  from  the  lanterns  of  the  few  pedestrians. 
Most  of  the  people  to  be  met  were  women,  each  one 
white  clad  and  closely  veiled,  carrying  a  tiny  paper 
lantern  giving  out  a  feeble  glow  from  its  beeswax 
taper.  For  from  the  tolling  of  the  "  curfew  bell "  for 
the  closing  of  the  city  gates,  until  the  opening  of  the 
same  at  dawn,  all  common  men  except  the  attendants 
of  a  person  of  rank,  were  excluded  from  the  streets 
which   were   then   given   over   to  the  women,  who 


70  THINGS  KOEEAN 

seemed  to  enjoy  to  the  full  this  liberty  of  the  city, 
and  were  taking  this  time  to  make  their  social  calls 
and  get  some  necessary  out-of-door  exercise.  What 
better  occasion  could  there  be  for  the  lone  woman 
from  a  distant  land  to  make  her  first  progress  on  foot 
through  the  streets  of  this,  to  her,  unexplored  city. 

Assassinations. — That  was  not  to  be,  however,  for 
underneath  that  calm  an  awful  storm  was  brewing. 
Soon  after  my  arrival  home  a  messenger  burst  in 
upon  us  with  a  request  from  the  American  minister, 
that  I  come  with  all  speed  to  the  place  where  an  of- 
ficial banquet  was  being  given  in  honour  of  the  open- 
ing of  the  post-office,  and  where  murder  had  been 
committed. 

/  After  being  rushed  across  the  city  under  an  escort 
of  native  troops,  I  found  the  foreign  representatives 
and  the  high  native  dignitaries  spattered  with  blood 
and  terribly  agitated,  while  the  host  of  the  evening, 
Prince  Min,  was  lying  at  the  point  of  death  with 
arteries  severed  and  seven  sword  cuts  on  his  head 

.  and  body.  This  man  had  just  returned  from  America 
where  he  had  gone  to  ratify  our  treaty  with  his 
country,  and  he  was  the  greatest  man  in  Korea  next 
to  his  ruler. 

It  took  three  months  of  constant  care,  attended 
with  much  anxiety  and  peril,  to  bring  the  prince 
back  to  health  and  even  then  he  was  a  badly  scarred 
and  worse  scared  Korean  who,  soon  after  his  recov- 
ery, took  up  his  permanent  residence  in  China. 

Japanese  and  Chinese  Clash. — This  emeute  be- 
came a  contest  between  the  conservative  party  as- 


A  SEOUL  NIGHT  AND  A  KEVOLUTION    71 

sisted  by  the  Chinese,  and  the  progressists  aided  by 
Japan.  There  were  days  of  severe  fighting  and 
nights  when  the  city  was  illuminated  by  the  burning 
of  the  dwellings  of  prominent  natives  who  had  been 
assassinated. 

The  Japanese  fought  well  but  they  had  only  one 
hundred  and  forty  soldiers  as  against  some  thousands 
of  Chinese  troops.  They  were  finally  obliged  to 
burn  their  handsome  new  legation  buildings,  abandon 
the  palace,  which  they  had  seized  and  held,  and  fight 
their  way  across  and  out  of  the  city  and  on  to  Che- 
mulpo, leaving  over  forty  dead  lying  in  the  streets 
where  I  saw  the  dogs  devouring  them  during  the 
next  few  weeks,  while  being  escorted  from  place  to 
place  in  making  professional  visits  to  the  wounded 
Chinese  and  Koreans.  There  were  no  wounded 
Japanese,  for  all  of  that  nationality  who  could  not  * 
escape  to  some  place  of  safety,  were  killed  and  thrown^ 
to  the  dogs. 

The  twelve  Western  foreigners,  with  a  small  band 
of  Japanese  refugees,  were  assembled  at  the  Ameri- 
can Legation,  where  regular  guard  duty  was  per- 
formed under  the  direction  of  the  naval  officer  just 
mentioned,  who  later  accompanied  the  Japanese  ref- 
ugees with  a  Chinese  escort,  to  a  ship  at  Chemulpo. 
For  this  he  was  afterwards  honoured  by  the  Japa- 
nese Government. 

A  Prince's  Life  Saved. — The  prince  at  last  re- 
covered and  his  physician  was  honoured  by  being 
made  medical  officer  to  the  court  and  maritime  cus- 
toms service,  and  was  provided  with  a  hospital  in 


72  THINGS  KOREAN 

which  to  treat  the  thousands  of  natives  who  had  con- 
ceived the  most  exaggerated  ideas  of  the  virtues  of 
*  Western  medical  and  surgical  science,  because  of  the 
fact  that  their  prince  had  been  saved  thereby.  Later 
on  they  actually  brought  me  watches  and  clocks  that 
had  stopped  or  "  died,"  insisting  that  I  bring  them  to 
life. 

A  Useless  Gun. — An  amusing  incident  occurred 
during  this  trouble.  I  had  left  our  only  revolver 
with  my  wife,  to  use  on  herself  and  the  baby  if  that 
became  necessary,  while  I  had  borrowed  a  short, 
heavy  carbine,  which  I  carried  with  me  constantly,  to 
my  great  discomfort,  and  which  reposed  under  our 
bed  at  night.  When  the  trouble  was  over  and  all  was 
again  peaceful,  I  went  out  one  day  to  try  my  marks- 
manship. The  clumsy  weapon  could  not  be  dis- 
charged, since  the  cartridges,  of  which  the  magazine 
was  full,  were  too  large  for  the  calibre  of  the  gun. 
It  had  served  its  purpose,  however,  in  giving  confi- 
dence and  in  warding  off  any  attack  that  might  have 
been  contemplated  but  for  its  formidable  presence. 

The  post-office  was  destroyed  together  with  the 
little  mail  supposed  to  have  been  received,  but  the 
natives  could  not  so  easily  thwart  such  a  world-wide 
power  as  the  postal  service.  Another  and  more  suc- 
cessful attempt  followed  this  one,  thus  providing 
several  sets  of  stamps  for  collectors  to  gather  and  in- 
dicating the  folly  of  trying  to  fight  against  modern 
progress. 


VIII 
KOREA  AND  THE  KOREANS 

According  to  the  verdict  of  certain  scientists  our 
aborigines  are  supposed  to  have  come  from  Korea. 
In  the  comparatively  short  time  during  which  the 
Spanish  kept  records  on  our  Pacific  coast,  over  one 
hundred  junks  are  said  to  have  drifted  across  that 
ocean,  along  the  Aleutian  Islands  and  the  Alaskan 
coast,  in  the  track  of  the  Japan  current.  This  would 
indicate  that  considerable  numbers  of  human  beings 
may  have  so  reached  what  are  now  our  shores  during 
the  centuries  that  preceded  the  advent  of  the  European. 

When  in  Washington  with  the  Korean  Legation  in 
1888,  the  then  minister  from  Nicaragua  expressed 
himself  to  me  as  much  struck  with  the  resemblance 
of  the  Koreans  to  the  educated  natives  of  his  coun- 
try. Certainly  there  is  a  strong  resemblance  between 
some  of  our  native  Indian  tribes  and  the  Koreans. 

A  White  Man's  Land. — Korea  has  been  aptly 
termed  "  A  white  man's  land."  Although  it  is  a  con- 
tinuation of  Siberia,  extending  down  between  the 
Yellow  and  the  Japan  Seas,  it  has  a  climate  much  the 
same  as  that  of  our  northern  central  states,  with  more 
equable  winters,  and  a  regular  rainy  season  during 
two  of  the  summer  months. 

The  winters  are  one  succession  of  bright  sunny 
days  with  just  enough  gray  days  to  relieve  the  mon- 

73 


74  THINGS  KOREAN 

otony,  and  growing  almost  imperceptibly  colder  day 
by  day  until  the  great  navigable  river  at  the  capital 
is  frozen  over  so  that  the  cart  road  is  extended  across 
the  ice.  The  mornings  are  overcast  until  the  sea 
breeze  blows  away  the  vapours  towards  noon.  This 
gives  to  the  country  its  name  of  the  land  of  the  morn- 
ing calm. 

Products. — The  great  product  of  Korea  is  rice, 
which  is  the  staple  of  diet.  Next  come  beans,  which 
are  largely  used  as  a  food  for  man  and  beast,  being 
mixed  with  rice  in  the  human  dietary  or  used  in  the 
form  of  curd  or  cake,  while  they  are  indispensable  for 
making  the  sauce  so  highly  prized  in  Asia,  and  which 
is  shipped  abroad  in  vast  quantities  for  the  prepara- 
tion of  a  celebrated  English  sauce  as  well  as  others, 
since  it  is  the  foundation  for  most  of  our  sauces. 
Any  one  who  patronizes  a  Chinese  restaurant  will  be 
familiar  with  this  bean  sauce.  Millet,  rye,  barley, 
oats,  wheat  and  some  poor  corn,  together  with  cot- 
ton and  vegetables,  form  the  chief  farm  crops  raised 
in  Korea  after  rice  and  beans. 

Origin. — The  Koreans  are  of  Mongolian  origin. 
They  resemble  the  Chinese  more  than  they  do  the 
Japanese,  though  if  one  of  each  of  these  nationalities 
is  dressed  in  foreign  clothes  with  no  distinguishing 
mark,  it  is  practically  impossible  to  distinguish  one 
from  the  other. 

Language. — Koreans  understand  the  common  writ- 
ten characters  of  China,  Japan  and  Korea,  but  they 
give  these  characters  their  own  pronunciation,  which 
has  no  resemblance  to  that  of  their  neighbours. 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOREANS  75 

Mistakes.  The  Jetty. — We  foreigners  make  some 
ludicrous  mistakes  in  attempting  to  use  the  native 
language.  When  I  went  there  there  were  no  books 
that  one  might  study,  and  I  had  recourse  to  books  I 
had  used  in  China.  Soon  after  arriving  I  took  up 
my  Chinese  dictionary  and  tried  to  use  it  in  explain- 
ing to  a  man  with  a  packhorse  that  he  must  go  to 
the  jetty  on  the  river  and  bring  me  some  freight. 
He  promptly  went  to  the  horse's  head  and  remained 
there.  After  considerable  effort  of  a  fruitless  charac- 
ter, it  dawned  upon  me  that  the  Chinese  characters 
used  for  jetty,  meant  literally  horse's  head,  when  taken 
by  themselves. 

A  Nuisance. — At  another  time  I  tried  to  use  my 
dictionary  to  tell  a  man  that  in  my  opinon  he  was  a 
nuisance.  He  had  been  shot  in  the  eye  by  the  Jap- 
anese in  1884,  and  I  had  removed  the  eye  and  the 
bullet,  thus  inspiring  him  with  such  gratitude  that  he 
persisted  in  spending  his  time  in  my  office,  to  my 
great  inconvenience.  Now  in  China,  be  it  said,  if 
you  save  a  man's  life  you  are  thereafter  responsible 
for  him  as  though  you  were  his  progenitor,  and 
thinking  that  some  such  custom  might  prevail  in  my 
new  home,  I  did  not  wish  so  soon  to  encumber  my- 
self with  a  family  of  that  character.  After  hinting  to 
him  in  various  rather  plain  efforts  that  his  presence 
was  not  desired,  I  finally  took  up  my  dictionary  and 
finding  the  word  for  nuisance  I  pointed  to  it  and  told 
him  as  well  as  possible  that  he  was  it.  The  poor  fel- 
low seemed  surprised  and  began  sniffing  about  and 
examining  his  shoes,  until  it  dawned  upon  me  that  I 


76  THINGS  KOEEAN 

had  gotten  the  wrong  synonym,  and  called  him  a 
stench.     He  was  allowed  to  remain  after  that. 

Come  On. — These  two  words  sound  just  like  the 
Korean  expression  for  stop,  and  this  similarity  in 
sound  of  two  such  opposite  meanings  came  near  cost- 
ing the  life  of  an  American.  In  1886  this  man  was 
underneath  a  huge  boiler  that  was  being  placed  for 
an  electric  lighting  plant.  The  load  was  supported 
by  ropes  manned  by  numbers  of  coolies.  Desiring 
just  a  little  more  elevation  in  order  to  let  the  boiler 
down  into  its  masonry  bed,  the  American  called  out, 
"  Now,  come  on,"  and  every  man  let  go  of  his  rope  as 
that  was  the  order  they  were  expecting.  Fortunately 
the  American  escaped,  but  it  was  a  very  close  call. 

Perspire. — A  young  missionary  was  recently 
preaching  to  a  mixed  congregation,  the  men  being 
seated  on  one  side  of  the  chapel  with  a  curtain  ex- 
tending down  the  middle  of  the  room,  separating 
them  from  the  women.  He  was  very  earnest  in  his 
rebuke  of  the  Korean  women,  because  they  were  so 
beset  with  the  sin  of  covetousness,  explaining  that 
they  could  never  hope  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
unless  they  gave  up  that  sin.  Finally  one  old  woman, 
unable  to  stand  it  longer,  arose  and  announced  that 
it  was  impossible  to  rid  themselves  of  this  failing. 
This  only  served  to  bring  forth  a  stronger  condemna- 
tion till  the  old  woman  interrupted  the  missionary  to 
demand  some  medicine  for  the  trouble,  if  it  was  so 
bad  as  all  that,  since  any  one  might  know  that  this 
was  a  thing  which  faith  could  not  reach.  The  mis- 
sionary's teacher  thereupon  arose  and  called  his  pu- 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOREANS  77 

pil's  attention  to  the  fact  that  while  he  was  preaching 
upon  the  subject  of  covetousness  he  had  been  using 
the  word  for  perspire. 

First  Convert. — The  old  man  who  cared  for  my 
office  in  the  early  days  when  my  time  was  taken  up 
with  the  wounded,  was  supposed  to  be  my  teacher 
had  I  had  time  for  study  of  the  language.  He  was  a 
scholar  and  could  read  the  Chinese  text.  I  had  on 
my  desk,  among  other  books,  a  copy  of  the  New 
Testament  in  Chinese  which  this  old  man  began  to 
read  as  a  means  of  passing  the  time  that  hung  heavy 
on  his  hands.  He  became  so  interested  in  the  book 
that  on  leaving  my  service  he  stole  it.  It  was  the 
means,  however,  of  his  conversion  to  Christianity  and 
the  strange  thing  about  it  was  that  though  I  was  a 
Presbyterian  and  the  book  had  been  published  on  a 
Presbyterian  press,  it  made  a  Methodist  of  this,  the 
first  Protestant  convert  in  Korea. 

It  was  like  the  case  related  by  Dr.  Grenfell,  of 
Labrador,  himself  of  the  Church  of  England,  who 
received  through  the  kindness  of  a  Congregational 
minister,  the  present  of  a  pair  of  cork  legs  formerly 
worn  by  a  Methodist  clergyman,  which  legs  Dr.  Gren- 
fell attached  to  a  Catholic  patient.  There  would 
seem  to  be  more  reason  for  straying  in  this  case, 
however,  than  in  the  one  that  occurred  to  me. 

The  Capital  and  the  Official 
The  City. — Seen  from  one  of  the  sheltering  moun- 
tains, Seoul  presents  a  dull  level  of  weathered  houses, 
relieved  here  and  there  by  trees,  singly  or  in  clumps, 


78  THINGS  KOREAN 

denoting  the  location  of  one  of  the  residences  of  the 
better  class. 

The  streets  and  alleys  are  usually  well  defined  as 
white  ribbons  laid  down  in  the  mass  of  gray,  for  white 
being  the  national  colour,  as  well  as  that  of  the  mourn- 
ers who  form  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Korean  popu- 
lation, their  garments  lend  their  colour  to  the  streets 
thronged  with  pedestrians. 

White  Costumes. — The  use  of  white  by  a  people 
whose  surroundings  are  not  immaculate  may  seem 
odd,  but  like  other  of  their  customs  it  had  reason  for 
its  adoption.  White  being  the  mourning  colour  and 
three  years  the  mourning  period,  it  may  easily  be 
seen  that  with  ordinary  rates  of  mortality  there  must 
be  many  who  are  in  mourning  at  any  given  time. 
Furthermore,  when  a  royal  personage  dies  the  whole 
population  must  odopt  mourning  colours  for  a  period 
of  three  years ;  it  was  quite  natural  therefore  that  the 
people  should  accept  the  inevitable  and  adopt  the 
mourning  colour  permanently  in  order  to  be  ready 
for  what  was  pretty  sure  to  happen. 

The  Wall. — A  wall  of  heavy  masonry  about  eight 
to  ten  feet  thick  and  twenty  feet  high  encircles  the 
city,  climbing  the  mountain  peaks  and  capping  the 
surrounding  ridges,  for  a  distance  of  ten  to  twelve 
miles.  Great  gates  are  placed  at  suitable  intervals  in 
the  lower  lying  portions  of  the  wall ;  some  of  them 
have  bastions  while  all  have  great  high  pagoda  roofs 
covering  a  sort  of  gallery,  which  forms  a  cool  and 
comfortable  place  from  which  to  watch  the  novel 
sights  in  the  street  below. 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOREANS  79 

The  Curfew. — Formerly  it  was  the  custom  to 
close  these  gates  for  the  night,  and  in  coming  by 
chair  or  pony  from  Chemulpo  our  great  anxiety  was 
always  to  reach  the  city  before  the  closing  of  the 
gates,  otherwise  we  would  be  obliged  to  scale  the 
wall  by  the  aid  of  a  rope  let  down  for  a  consideration 
and  in  violation  of  law. 

The  closing  of  the  gates  followed  the  ringing  of  a 
great  bell  hung  in  a  pagoda  at  the  centre  of  the  city, 
the  tolling  of  the  bell  being  accompanied  by  weird 
music  similar  to  that  of  bagpipes,  rendered  by  musi- 
cians placed  in  the  pavilion  over  the  gate  at  the  gov- 
ernor's yamen. 

After  the  closing  of  the  gates  the  streets  were  re- 
served to  the  women,  the  men — except  officials  and 
their  retinues — being  excluded  from  the  thorough- 
fares which  were  then  made  white  with  the  proces- 
sions of  women  with  their  little  paper  lanterns. 

Signal-fires. — This  gate-closing  ceremony  was 
preceded  by  the  lighting  of  the  signal-fires  on  a 
wooded,  evergreen  mountain  which  forms  the  south- 
ern side  of  the  city  and  faces  the  palace.  For  in 
order  to  know  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  country,  men 
were  placed  on  convenient  peaks  in  a  line  extending 
in  from  the  borders  and  these  watchmen  would  build 
their  fires  on  seeing  the  flash  of  those  beyond.  When 
these  nearer  ones  were  seen  by  the  watcher  on  the 
South  Mountain  at  Seoul  he  would  build  the  requisite 
number  of  fires  on  his  little  altars  in  full  view  of  the 
city  and  the  palace,  whereupon  four  old  gray-bearded 
officials  would  go  in  and  bow  to  the  floor  before  their 


80  THINGS  KOREAN 

ruler  and  announce  the  message  of  the  fires, — that  all 
was  peaceful  on  the  borders,  or  otherwise.  After 
this  the  business  of  the  government  would  proceed 
throughout  the  night,  in  order  that  swift  messengers 
might  bear  the  mandates  forth  with  the  approach  of 
dawn  and  thus  the  affairs  of  the  people  would  be 
provided  for. 

The  Official. — Every  Korean  of  any  ambition  as- 
pires to  official  rank,  which  after  the  satisfaction  of 
the  creature  comforts,  is  the  most  delightful  thing  he 
may  contemplate.  Formerly  any  man  might  hope 
to  obtain  this  end  by  successfully  passing  the  com- 
petitive examination  open  to  all.  This  quaga  was 
one  of  our  great  sights  in  the  early  days,  when  hun- 
dreds of  scholars  from  all  over  the  country  would  be 
seen  seated  on  the  ground  in  an  enclosure  at  the 
back  of  the  palace,  industriously  writing  essays  on 
some  subject  taken  from  the  Chinese  classics,  and 
thus  striving  on  year  after  year,  as  in  China,  to  lift 
themselves  up  from  the  lot  of  the  commoner  to  that 
of  the  desirable  official  class.  And  what  a  luxurious 
picture  the  official  presented  to  his  less-favoured 
brother  in  that  secluded  land,  where  outside  im- 
pressions were  restricted  to  those  obtained  second- 
hand from  the  great  neighbouring  Middle  Kingdom, 
which  to  them  embodied  all  that  was  worthy  of 
imitation. 

When  the  yangban,  or  man  of  rank,  moved  out 
from  the  home  where  he  held  a  petty  court,  even  if 
his  subjects  were  perforce  but  women  and  children 
and  a  few  half  starved  servants,  he  went  in  state.     If 


KOREA  AND  THE  KOREANS  81 

too  poor  to  ride  he  would  stride  along  with  such  an 
overpowering  air  of  condescension  that  the  very  street 
seemed  honoured  by  having  its  dust  so  trampled. 
He  would  in  turn  be  most  subservient  when  a  fellow 
yangban  of  higher  rank  appeared,  mounted  on  a 
donkey — that  beast  so  delightful  to  a  native  of 
sufficiently  high  standing  to  be  allowed  to  keep  and 
ride  one.  But  even  the  proud  rider  of  the  donkey 
would  hie  himself  up  a  side  street  or  hastily  dis- 
mount and  stand  to  one  side,  as  far  down  the  street 
was  heard  the  familiar  call  of  the  outrunners  of  some 
great  noble,  snugly  ensconced  in  a  comfortable  closed 
chair  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  four  men,  with 
numerous  attendants.  These  outrunners  moreover 
were,  until  recent  years,  equipped  with  long  paddles 
with  which  they  would  soundly  whack  any  of  the 
common  herd  who  should  neglect  to  dismount,  to 
remove  the  ever-present  pipe  from  the  mouth  or  fail 
to  rise  if  sitting  down. 

How  fierce  these  fellows  seemed,  armed  with 
authority  and  sure  of  the  protection  of  their  power- 
ful master.  My  own  chairman,  even  after  I  became 
the  representative  of  the  United  States,  could  with 
difficulty  overcome  their  fear  of  them  and  the  effect 
of  old  custom,  and  would  regularly  step  aside,  even 
into  the  ditch,  and  hold  me  there  for  the  procession 
to  pass.  One  day,  however,  my  insistence  upon  a  con- 
trary course  brought  on  a  collision  from  which  the 
foreigner  emerged  with  such  glory  that  thereafter  it 
became  difficult  for  me  to  restrain  my  haughty 
bearers    from  going  to  the  opposite  extreme ; — so 


82  THINGS  KOEEAN 

easy  is  it  for  a  downtrodden  race  to  assert  them- 
selves once  the  pressure  is  removed. 

In  the  train  of  this  noble,  riding  along  in  his  cozy- 
chair,  there  would  be  in  addition  to  the  outrunners 
and  personal  guard,  a  custodian  of  the  seals  of  his 
master  which  would  be  borne  along  in  a  brass-bound 
box.  Another  man  would  bear  in  a  case  strapped  to 
his  back,  the  uniform  to  be  donned  at  court  before 
going  into  the  presence.  There  would  be  the  pipe 
bearer  whose  duty  it  is  to  light  his  master's  pipe — 
wiping  off  the  mouthpiece  on  the  inside  front  breadth 
of  his  skirt  thereafter.  Then  there  must  always  be 
the  man  bearing  the  vessel  of  convenience  without 
which  no  gentleman  would  go  abroad. 

Should  a  man  of  this  class  go  out  on  horse  or 
donkey  back,  he  would  be  supported  on  the 
ridiculously  elevated  saddle,  by  a  man  on  either  side, 
while  another  would  lead  the  animal,  the  rider  hold- 
ing meantime  to  an  iron  ring  projecting  up  from  the 
saddle. 

After  having  dismounted,  or  on  emerging  from  the 
closed  chair,  with  much  assistance  and  smoothing  of 
gowns  by  the  attendants,  two  servants  take  their 
master  under  the  arms  and  practically  support  his 
weight  as  he  mounts  the  steps  of  a  building,  as 
though  one  so  exalted  had  little  use  for  feet  when  so 
occupied  with  mental  labours  and  matters  of  state. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  every  Korean  dreamed  by 
day  and  night  of  this  delectable  state  for  which  he 
could  not  but  long  with  all  the  depth  of  his  nature, 
and  that  all  the  stories  of  their  interesting  folk-lore 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOREANS  83 

should  have  as  their  climax  the  acquisition  of  rank 
rather  than  success  in  love  as  with  us.  They  were 
enough  unto  themselves.  They  wanted  nothing  not 
within  their  own  reach.  Nothing  that  the  outside 
world  might  offer  could  compare,  in  their  estimation, 
with  this,  their  own  most  desirable  state  of  blissful 
superiority  and  command.  As  for  the  common  man, 
he  got  some  compensation  in  robbing  the  official  on 
every  possible  occasion,  which  was  by  no  means 
seldom ;  his  creature  comforts  were  supplied  and  his 
children  might  aspire  to  the  class  just  described. 

Press  of  Modern  Life.— But  these  halcyon  days 
have  passed  never  to  return,  for  the  hermitage  has 
been  invaded  by  the  press  of  modern  life,  and  a  re- 
version to  the  happy  days  of  comfortable  aristocracy 
and  abject  poverty  is  impossible,  however  much  the 
poverty  may  persist  or  be  increased.  The  telegraph 
has  relegated  the  signal-fires  to  a  mere  memory. 
The  electric  light  is  taking  the  place  of  the  paper 
lantern.  The  trolley  has  compelled  the  opening  of 
the  city  gates  at  night  and  made  the  streets  free  to 
all,  while  the  great  bell  now  tolls  for  noon  and  mid- 
night as  though  loath  to  abandon  its  time  old  office. 
The  palace  is  but  an  appanage  of  the  Japanese 
residency  and  there  is  precious  little  respect  shown 
by  the  haughty  little  representatives  of  Korea's 
present  overlords,  who  would  make  short  work  of 
an  official  retinue  that  should  try  to  brush  them  off 
the  street  on  the  approach  of  a  lord  of  the  olden 
time. 

Off  in  some  distant  valley  where  gold  or  rich  crops 


.  f/ 


84  THINGS  KOKEAN 

may  not  have  tempted  the  overbearing  foreigner, 
some  yangban  of  ancient  lineage  and  inborne  aristo- 
cratic tendencies,  may  still  live  the  life  of  his 
ancestors  in  the  seclusion  of  his  deep  recess,  shut  in 
by  pine  clad  mountains,  where  his  uncontaminated 
and  unsophisticated  neighbours  may  pay  to  him  the 
ancient  homage  due  to  rank  and  scholarship.  But 
in  the  capital  the  men  of  the  old  regime  must  con- 
tent themselves  as  they  may  with  dreams  of  a 
vanished  glory,  while  seeing  the  sons  of  their  late  re- 
tainers rise  above  the  scions  of  the  ancient  house,  as 
they  develop  a  greater  adaptability  to  the  new  con- 
ditions prevailing  in  that  once  quiet  land  of  the 
morning  calm  and  peaceful  eventide. 

The  People 

Naturally  where  politeness  was  so  long  compul- 
sory, the  people  have  been  so  bred  to  it  that  this 
trait  is  quite  noticeable.  Further,  in  ancient  times 
Korea  ranked  high  in  matters  of  etiquette.  When  I 
first  reached  the  country  one  of  the  cabinet  officers 
held  the  portfolio  of  etiquette  and  ceremony. 

Bicycle  Politeness I  have  seen  a  Korean,  acci- 
dentally thrown  down  on  being  run  into  by  a  bicycle, 
gather  himself  up  from  the  ground  and  even  before 
brushing  off  his  soiled  garments,  apologize  for  being 
in  the  way  and  thus  causing  the  rider  inconvenience. 

A  Fall  Down  a  Shaft. — At  one  of  the  foreign 
gold  mines,  a  notice  was  conspicuously  posted  at  the 
mouth  of  the  shaft,  forbidding  all  people  from  enter- 
ing the  mine  without  permission.     A  native,  seeing 


KOKEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS  86 

the  announcement  and  having  the  usual  curiosity  to 
ascertain  what  the  proclamation  might  mean,  ap- 
proached so  close  to  the  opening  that  he  fell  down 
the  shaft.  The  foreigners  hastened  to  the  bottom 
expecting  to  find  the  man  but  a  mass  of  mangled  re- 
mains, when  to  their  surprise  they  found  he  was  not 
much  hurt,  and  as  they  approached  he  became  pro- 
fuse in  apologizing  for  having  inadvertently  entered 
the  mine  without  permission.  He  seems  to  have  had 
just  time  to  make  out  the  sense  of  the  proclamation 
when  he  lost  his  balance  and  violated  it. 

Curiosity. — Having  so  few  amusements  and  being 
inclined  to  idleness,  in  a  land  where  life  has  long  been 
compatible  with  a  modicum  of  labour  and  much  con- 
sequent leisure,  the  people  are  naturally  inspired  with 
a  consuming  desire  to  see  or  hear  some  new  or  inter- 
esting thing.  Anything  out  of  the  ordinary  will 
therefore  serve  to  attract  an  interested  company. 

Cyclometer — I  often  had  such  a  crowd  about  my 
bicycle,  especially  if  I  stopped  by  the  roadside  to 
"  feed  it  wind,"  or  to  make  some  slight  repairs.  On 
one  such  occasion  a  spokesman,  as  usual,  appointed 
himself,  and,  after  explaining  to  the  others  how  the 
thing  ate  wind  and  went  itself — with  the  speed  of  a 
bird,  he  was  called  upon  to  explain  about  the  cyclom- 
eter. This  he  promptly  announced  to  be  a  clock 
so  placed  that  the  rider  could  tell  the  hour  without 
stopping.  Not  wishing  to  tempt  the  people  by  letting 
them  suppose  this  to  be  a  clock,  I  joined  in  the  con- 
versation and  told  them  of  the  workings  of  the  cyclom- 
eter.    Mr.  Spokesman  then  asked  how  many  miles 


86  THINGS  KOEEAN 

it  registered.  I  replied  that  it  showed  I  had  gone 
six  thousand  of  their  miles,  or  two  thousand  of  ours, 
whereupon  he  asked  in  all  good  faith  if  I  had  done 
that  distance  since  breakfast.     It  was  not  yet  noon. 

Such  strange  things  were  done  by  the  foreigners 
with  their  queer  contrivances,  that  if  I  had  told  them 
we  could  communicate  with  the  moon,  I  think  they 
would  not  have  been  greatly  astonished. 

Bicycle  Railway — Once  a  venerable  old  man 
came  up  to  me  in  his  gentle,  kindly  manner,  as  I  was 
carrying  my  wheel  over  the  stepping-stones  across  a 
brook,  and  showed  much  curiosity  regarding  the  ma- 
chine. I  let  him  examine  it  and  pleased  him  greatly 
by  showing  him  how  to  ring  the  bell,  which  never 
failed  to  gratify  them.  Having  satisfied  himself,  he 
stepped  to  one  side  and  regarded  the  machine  for  a 
while  when  he  remarked,  "  Well,  well,  I  suppose  this 
is  the  new  thing  called  a  railway,  of  which  I  have 
heard  so  much." 

Rapid  Railway  Building One  old  man  who  at 

first  was  rather  skeptical  about  these  foreign  under- 
takings, became  convinced  of  foreign  ability  to  an  ex- 
tent that  was  hardly  to  have  been  expected,  and  that 
was  most  amusing. 

He  was  about  to  make  his  first  trip  from  Fusan  to 
Seoul  by  means  of  the  foreign  fire-eating  ships  and 
engines.  Often  had  he  toiled  from  thirteen  to  twenty 
days  on  that  journey  overland,  but  now  he  had  come 
into  the  settlement  intending  to  do  it  in  two  sleeps 
as  had  his  neighbours,  thus  saving  much  money — not 
to  mention  less  valuable  time. 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS  8> 

At  Fusan  he  saw  men  building  the  grade  of  the 
Seoul-Fusan  railway  and  being  told  what  it  was  he 
laughed  knowingly  and  remarked  that  their  hair 
would  be  whiter  than  his  before  ever  they  reached 
Seoul  with  that  dyke,  for  he  had  built  dykes  around 
rice-fields  all  his  life  and  he  knew  what  the  work 
meant. 

His  comfortable  trip  up  the  coast  was  a  revelation. 
Plenty  to  eat,  much  to  see,  and  just  enough  gentle 
motion  to  induce  a  continual  sleep. 

From  Chemulpo,  on  the  railway  train,  he  was 
almost  too  astonished  to  smoke  as  he  saw  the  people 
in  the  fields  rush  past  him.  Finally,  taking  courage 
from  his  fellow  passengers,  he  sedately  lit  his  pipe 
and  had  only  "  spit  out  of  the  window  twice,"  when 
they  arrived  at  the  then  terminus,  where  other  work- 
men were  constructing  the  Seoul  end  of  the  Seoul- 
Fusan  railway.  On  being  told  what  this  was,  the  old 
man  supposed  these  were  the  same  men  he  had  seen 
at  work  three  hundred  miles  away  and  that  they  had 
completed  their  task. 

All  he  could  do  was  to  squat  weakly  on  his 
haunches  and  exclaim  "  aigoo,"  as  he  called  upon  the 
spirit  of  his  maternal  ancestor,  as  though  demanding 
of  her  if  she  had  ever  heard  of  any  such  dyke  build- 
ing in  her  experience. 

Transportation 
The  native  means  of  transportation  is  by  heavy 
bull  cart  or  junk,  or  by  pack  borne  on  the  backs  of 
bulls  or  ponies,  men  or  women.     People  walk,  ride 


88  THINGS  KOEEAN 

ponies,  or  are  borne  in  chairs.  I  have  been  carried 
twenty-five  miles  in  a  comfortable  chair  repeatedly, 
doing  the  distance  in  as  few  as  five  hours,  with  four 
men  in  the  poles  and  four  others  to  run  alongside  and 
"  spell  "  the  bearers.  In  such  cases  it  is  very  desirable 
to  have  a  good  story-teller  among  the  men,  one  of 
good  wind  who  can  keep  at  his  tale  while  bearing 
the  load  along  at  a  dog  trot.  He  will  rattle  off  his 
yarn  in  fine  shape  while  the  others  trudge  on  with 
eyes  on  the  ground,  drinking  in  greedily  the  interest- 
ing story  and  thus  forgetting  how  long  it  takes  to 
cross  a  valley  or  climb  a  mountain  pass.  At  every 
climax  of  humour  there  will  be  one  unanimous  burst 
of  appreciative  laughter,  and  the  crew  fetch  up  at 
their  destination  comparatively  fresh  and  in  good 
time.  Without  this  means  of  beguiling  the  tedium, 
every  wine  shop  will  be  eagerly  sighted  in  advance, 
and  by  the  time  the  journey  is  well  under  way  the 
heavy  feet  of  the  bearers  will  require  frequent  stops 
on  any  and  all  pretexts. 

Even  for  the  pedestrian  travelling  is  expensive,  for 
shoes  must  be  bought  even  if  they  are  but  straw  san- 
dals, while  food  by  the  way  must  be  paid  for  before 
being  eaten.  All  this  makes  the  railway  very  popu- 
lar. A  man  would  walk  the  twenty-five  miles  from 
Seoul  to  Chemulpo,  do  his  errand,  and  return  the 
next  day.  He  would  require  at  least  four  meals  while 
away,  which  would  cost  forty  cents.  He  could  go 
down  and  back  in  one  day  by  the  cars  at  little  more 
cost  and  carry  with  him  a  considerable  load,  the  third 
class  having  been  made  very  reasonable. 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS  89 

The  Pony. — The  Korean  horses  are  wiry  little 
ponies  with  plenty  of  fight  in  their  make  up.  Those 
met  on  the  roads  are  usually  stallions,  the  mares  being 
used  elsewhere,  as  is  the  case  with  the  bulls  and 
cows.  The  bulls  which  make  up  numerous  pack- 
trains,  however,  are  more  docile  than  are  the  ponies. 

I  well  remember  my  first  experience  with  one  of 
these  ponies.  It  occurred  on  the  morning  after  my 
arrival  at  Chemulpo,  in  1 884,  when  I  started  with  my 
Chinese  teacher  to  ride  to  Seoul.  As  I  approached 
the  horse  he  attacked  me  viciously,  first  with  his  heels 
and  then  with  his  forefeet.  The  grooms  tried  to 
restrain  him,  and  frantically  motioned  to  me  to  keep 
away.  They  then  covered  his  head  with  one  of  their 
long  robes,  and  I  took  a  running  jump  and  landed  in 
the  saddle.  I  had  brought  with  me  a  foreign  saddle, 
otherwise  I  might  have  been  compelled  to  ride  on  a 
pack  frame  and  would  probably  have  been  thrown, 
for  the  beast  plunged  and  tried  to  buck,  but  his  edu- 
cation had  fortunately  been  neglected,  and  the  near- 
est he  could  approach  to  this  accomplishment  was  to 
run  hard  for  a  while  and  then  come  to  a  sudden  stop 
with  his  forefeet  planted  rigidly.  Once  he  jumped 
upon  another  horse  and  knocked  off  the  rider,  but  I 
could  not  stop  to  apologize,  and  except  for  dismount- 
ing for  my  lunch  and  to  feed  the  animal,  which  ne- 
cessitated another  running  mount  with  the  horse 
blindfolded,  I  remained  on  his  back,  even  while  being 
ferried  in  a  small  boat  over  the  river.  Had  he  cap- 
sized the  boat  or  jumped  overboard,  as  I  half  ex- 
pected him  to  do,  I  think  I  should  have  clung  to  him, 


90  THINGS  KOEEAN 

for  his  back  was  a  vantage  post  not  to  be  lightly  re- 
linquished. 

A  friend  of  mine  rode  this  beast  up  country  on 
one  occasion,  where  he  met  the  pompous  procession 
of  a  proud  magistrate  riding  into  the  district  to  which 
he  had  been  newly  appointed.  The  people  were 
lined  up  here  and  there  to  witness  the  procession  and 
to  greet  their  new  governor,  while  the  overbearing 
yamen  runners  were  ahead  on  the  road  demonstrating 
their  zeal  to  their  new  head  official  and  clearing  the 
road  of  all  common  people.  These  were  followed  by 
men  with  long  trombone-like  horns,  upon  which  they 
blew  lustily  in  announcement  of  the  great  man's  ap- 
proach and  to  warn  the  people  off  the  path.  The 
unheard-of  sight  of  some  one  riding,  therefore,  in  the 
face  of  all  this  dignity  and  warning,  so  incensed  the 
runners  and  horn-blowers,  that  they  redoubled  their 
efforts  and  dashed  down  as  though  they  would  anni- 
hilate both  horse  and  rider.  My  friend  felt  a  little 
as  though  he  deserved  it,  but  the  horse  felt  otherwise 
and  seemed  to  breathe  a  freer  air  of  liberty  than  that 
of  those  adjoining  rice-fields.  At  any  rate  he  took 
things  into  his  own  hands,  or  rather  into  his  mouth, 
for  he  made  a  dash  at  the  first  horn,  seized  it  in  his 
mouth  and  flung  the  owner  into  the  soft  mud  of  the 
paddy-field,  where  even  the  great  official  himself  was 
hastily  carried,  while  the  steed  had  the  road  all  to 
himself  and  my  friend,  whose  sense  of  humour  is 
highly  developed,  called  out  the  Korean  salutation  of 
adieu,  or  "  peace  be  with  you,"  as  he  galloped  by. 
It  was  related  that  that  magistrate  was  so  humiliated 


PONIES    WITH    PACK    FRAMES 


THE    DONKEY— THE    PRIDE    OP    THE    LESSER    OFFICIAL 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS  91 

by  this  his  undignified  entrance  into  the  domains  of 
his  new  post,  that  he  soon  secured  an  exchange  to 
one  far  enough  away  to  be  removed  from  the  disa- 
greeable repetition  of  this  story. 

The  Donkey. — Formerly,  when  a  man  had  attained 
a  certain  rank  he  might  ride  a  donkey.  This  gentle 
animal  therefore  became  the  pride  of  the  hearts  of 
the  lesser  officials.  A  donkey  with  a  good  loud  bray 
and  a  tendency  to  exercise  his  vocal  organs  was  most 
highly  prized,  since  every  one  near  would,  on  hearing 
the  noise,  realize  at  once  that  that  was  the  house  of 
an  official,  while  the  less  favoured  neighbours  would 
take  pride  to  themselves  from  the  thus  loudly  pro- 
claimed fact  that  theirs  was  a  donkey  neighbour- 
hood. 

Squeaking  Gates. — Another  noise,  distressing  to 
the  foreigner  but  delightful  to  the  native,  was  the 
awful  rasping  of  a  great  gate  being  moved  on  its  un- 
oiled  hinges.  These  gates,  leading  into  walled  com- 
pounds, are  massive  affairs  of  heavy  plank  about  eight 
by  ten  feet  in  size,  iron  bound  and  studded  with  nails. 
The  noise  of  one  in  operation  may  be  imagined,  but 
nerve-racking  as  this  noise  may  be  to  us,  it  was  as 
delectable  to  the  Koreans  as  was  the  bray  of  the 
donkey,  for  it  indicated  the  location  of  the  residence 
of  one  of  the  gentry,  and  the  whole  neighbourhood 
rejoiced  in  the  sound  ;  while  those  too  far  removed  to 
be  able  to  run  out  and  see  who  was  entering  or  leav- 
ing, would  still  have  a  subject  for  conjecture  as  to  the 
identity  of  the  one  for  whom  the  gate  was  opened. 
Of  course  any  little  folk  would  go  through  the  com- 


92  THINGS  KOREAN 

mon  side  door  similar  to  the  one  opening  into  their 
own  small  houses.  ) 

Chinese  Wheelbarrows. — An  Asiatic  noise  even 
more  harrowing  than  that  made  by  the  gates,  is  that 
produced  by  the  unoiled  wheelbarrows  on  which  poor 
Chinamen  push  great  loads  of  brick  and  other  mer- 
chandise in  Korea,  or  people  and  merchandise  in 
China.  These  toilers  will  not,  moreover,  use  grease 
to  stop  this  noise  even  when  it  is  given  them ;  they 
seem  to  enjoy  the  screaming  and  groaning  of  the  hot 
hard  wood. 

A  Donkey  Incident. — Speaking  of  donkeys  reminds 
me  of  a  most  amusing  incident  I  witnessed  in  Nan- 
king. A  rather  peculiar  missionary  there  was  one  of 
our  neighbours.  He  was  tall  and  slender  and  kept  a 
very  diminutive  donkey  which  he  persisted  in  riding 
though  his  feet  would  touch  the  ground  when  let 
down.  One  day  I  met  this  man  returning  from 
market  with  a  large  assortment  of  tinware  tied  to- 
gether and  suspended  around  his  neck.  He  wore  a 
very  long  ulster  which  hung  down  over  the  hind 
quarters  of  the  donkey  so  that  simply  the  little  hoofs 
of  the  animal  and  the  tip  of  its  tail  were  to  be  seen 
from  the  rear,  while  the  head  of  the  rider,  protrud- 
ing from  the  top  of  the  ulster,  seemed  to  be  the 
other  end  of  the  body  to  which  the  hoofs  were  at- 
tached. 

I  realized  then  how  full  of  humour  the  Chinese  are, 
for  they  simply  roared  with  laughter  at  the  strange 
sight,  which  amused  me  as  much  as  it  did  them. 
This   laughter   annoyed   my   acquaintance   and   his 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOBEANS  93 

movements  disturbed  the  tinware,  the  rattling  of 
which  so  displeased  the  donkey  that  he  threw  his 
rider  and  his  rattling  load  right  over  his  head  into  a 
mud  puddle.  Unfortunately  the  American  lost  his 
temper  and  said  and  did  things  which  are  no  part  of 
this  story  but  which  simply  added  to  the  merriment 
of  the  good-natured  crowd,  who  certainly  enjoyed  to 
the  full  this  discomfiture  of  the  foreign  devil. 

Kerosene  Tins. — This  man's  load  of  tinware  was 
manufactured  from  discarded  kerosene  tins.  It 
amuses  travellers  to  see  the  uses  to  which  the  Asiat- 
ics put  these  five-gallon  tins  in  which  our  kerosene 
reaches  them, — packed  two  each  in  neat  wooden 
cases,  which  cases  also  find  innumerable  uses. 
Water-carriers  use  the  tins  slung  on  a  pole  strapped  to 
a  frame  on  their  backs.  Houses  are  roofed  with 
them,  the  tin  of  course  being  flattened  out.  With  the 
ends  removed  and  a  number  soldered  together  chim- 
neys are  formed.  A  Chinese  cook,  with  his  wonder- 
ful native  ingenuity,  will  plaster  the  inside  of  one 
such  tin  with  mud,  leaving  a  vent  connecting  with  a 
fire  hole  below,  and  on  this  improvised  range  he  will 
prepare  a  creditable  course  dinner  off  in  the  country 
wilds.  All  manner  of  cooking  and  household  uten- 
sils are  constructed  from  these  tins,  as  well  as  lamps, 
candlesticks,  toys  and  ornaments.  In  fact  it  would 
be  a  serious  matter  for  the  natives  if  they  did  not 
have  the  convenient  kerosene  tins,  which  conse- 
quently have,  together  with  empty  bottles,  a  regular 
price  and  usually  form  one  of  the  perquisites  of  the 
servants  in  a  foreign  establishment. 


94  THINGS  KOREAN 

Occupations 

Rice  Culture. — The  Koreans  are  an  agricultural 
people  and  farming  is  the  chief  occupation,  rice 
being  the  principal  crop.  Rice  culture  by  the  old 
methods  practised  in  the  Far  East,  involves  much 
hard  labour.  The  fields  must  be  made  level,  involv- 
ing the  construction  of  terraces,  tier  above  tier,  with 
little  dykes  separating  one  level  or  field  from  the 
others,  which  dykes  must  hold  water.  Sometimes 
the  water  must  be  raised  from  a  lower  to  a  higher 
level  instead  of  being  simply  run  off  from  the  upper 
to  the  lower  fields.  For  this  purpose  a  crude  sort  of 
water-wheel  is  often  arranged,  sometimes  being 
operated  by  animal  power.  The  common  method, 
however,  is  by  the  use  of  a  kind  of  scoop  shaped 
something  like  a  shovel  and  hung  on  a  tripod ;  the 
farmer  works  the  handle  of  this  appliance  and  with 
every  thrust  scoops  a  lot  of  water  from  the  lower  to 
the  higher  field. 

Seed  rice  is  first  sown  in  a  small,  carefully  prepared 
patches,  from  which  the  plants  are  taken  in  bunches 
for  transplanting.  When  the  wet  fields  have  been 
well  manured,  plowed,  and  harrowed,  with  the 
clumsy  tools  drawn  by  great  bulls  wading  up  to  their 
bellies  in  the  mire,  the  bunches  of  young  rice,  each 
tied  with  a  strand  of  straw,  are  thrown  about  in  spots 
convenient  to  a  row  of  men  and  women  who  wade 
out  and  jab  a  few  stalks  of  the  rice  taken  from  a  bun- 
dle, into  the  soft  mud  in  fairly  regular  rows.  These 
soon  take  root  and  thrive,  after  which  weeds  must  be 
kept  down,  water  must  be  let  on  in  proper  amount, 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS  95 

and  birds  must  be  kept  off  when  the  grain  is  ripen- 
ing. The  cutting  is  done  with  the  ground  compara- 
tively dry.  The  sheaves  are  then  laid  on  the  dykes 
or  on  a  hillside  to  dry  out  for  threshing.  The  thresh- 
ing is  done  on  a  prepared  clay  floor  by  means  of  a 
flail.  The  rice  is  then  husked  in  hand  mills  made  of 
serrated  sections  of  a  tree  trunk  fitted  together  for 
grinding.  After  this  is  done  the  close  envelope  is 
removed  by  pounding  in  a  stone  mortar  with  a 
wooden  or  iron  pestle.  This  results  in  many  a  bro- 
ken tooth  from  biting  upon  a  piece  of  stone  that  has 
been  chipped  off  in  this  process  and  become  mixed 
with  the  now  white  rice. 

Three-man  Shovel. — The  Koreans  are  very  in- 
genious in  their  use  of  the  shovel.  Its  use  for  raising 
water  has  just  been  noted.  For  turning  over  soil, 
ditching  or  any  work  requiring  the  raising  of  earth, 
they  use  a  broad  shovel  with  a  long  handle,  having  a 
rope  attached  to  either  ear  of  the  blade.  One  man 
will  guide  the  handle  while  one  or  two  men  will  pull 
on  each  rope,  thus  employing  from  three  to  five  men 
for  each  shovel.  When  working  this  instrument  for 
themselves  they  certainly  do  great  execution  with  it, 
but  when  working  for  wages  they  are  apt  to  make 
of  it  a  very  labour-saving  contrivance. 

Plows. — The  native  plow  is  a  very  crude  affair, 
heavy  to  handle  and  with  a  flat  blade  or  shovel  which 
makes  hard  dragging  for  the  plow  animal  and  is  very 
inefficient  in  sod  or  hard  ground,  while  at  best  it  only 
tickles  the  surface.  Our  plows  were  introduced  by 
our  missionaries  and  greatly  appreciated  by  the  na- 


96  THINGS  KOREAN 

tives,  but  they  seem  to  have  gone  back  to  old  custom, 
preferring  to  do  as  did  their  fathers  and  forefathers 
rather  than  suffer  the  odium  of  introducing  some 
foreign  innovation. 

A  Test  of  Strength. — The  natives  are  well  built 
and  strong.  Some  coolies  engaged  in  carrying  goods 
from  the  jetty  at  Chemulpo  to  the  warehouse  of  an 
American — a  distance  of  about  one  mile — bantered 
one  of  their  number  to  carry  a  bale  of  sheeting  of  five 
hundred  pounds  weight  that  distance.  The  others 
placed  the  bale  on  his  frame  and  he  actually  carried 
that  weight  a  mile  without  further  assistance.  There- 
upon the  guild  of  pack  coolies  set  upon  him  and  gave 
him  a  severe  beating  because  they  claimed  he  had 
spoiled  the  market  for  their  labour,  since  thereafter 
every  man  would  be  expected  to  do  the  same. 

Labourers. — They  are  good  labourers  on  the  rail- 
ways and  other  large  construction  work,  in  which 
they  soon  fell  into  the  contract  method  which  seemed 
to  appeal  to  them.  They  are  good  miners  in  the 
foreign  mines  at  twenty-five  cents  per  day  of  our 
money.  They  are  the  farmers  in  the  region  of 
Vladivostock  who  supply  the  city  and  garrison,  and 
in  Hawaii  they  are  prized  above  the  Japanese  labour- 
ers because  of  their  docile,  industrious  and  frugal 
habits. 

The  Laundry. — The  women  labour  in  the  fields, 
sometimes  knee-keep  in  the  mud  and  water  of  the 
rice  plantations.  They  also  engage  as  porters  and 
peddlers  along  the  roads,  such,  of  course,  being  poor 
creatures  reduced  to  this  work  and  unable  to  pre- 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEASTS  97 

serve  the  seclusion  so  dear  to  their  more  favoured 
sisters. 

In  cities  the  chief  occupation  of  the  similar  class 
of  women  is  that  of  the  laundress.  The  washing  is 
done  wherever  there  is  a  brook  and  even  at  the  sides 
of  wells,  the  water  sometimes  finding  its  way  directly- 
back  into  the  well  from  which  it  was  dipped.  All 
about  the  cities  wherever  there  is  a  little  brook  or 
spring,  there  may  be  found  a  company  of  women 
with  their  paddles,  pounding  clothes  on  smooth  stones 
in  the  water.  In  winter  the  ice  is  broken  to  allow 
of  this  cold  and  disagreeable  work,  for  with  white 
clothes  worn  by  all,  washing  becomes  a  most  neces- 
sary occupation. 

The  Mangle. — Instead  of  ironing  the  clothes  they 
are  mangled  or  pounded,  so  that  they  take  on  a  silky 
lustre — this  is  especially  the  case  with  garments  made 
of  grass  cloth.  The  cloth  to  be  mangled  is  wrapped 
around  a  large  wooden  roller  or  folded  and  laid  on  a 
block  of  stone.  Usually  two  women  will  seat  them- 
selves on  the  floor  opposite  each  other  with  this  roll 
between  them,  and  armed  with  what  looks  like  minia- 
ture ball  bats,  they  will  rapidly  pound  the  cloth,  the 
four  blows  producing  a  rhythmical  sound  so  peculiar 
as  not  likely  to  be  forgotten  when  once  it  is  heard. 

Woman's  Weapon. — This  mangling  seems  to  be 
done,  to  a  considerable  extent,  at  night,  and  the 
musical  rat-tat-tap  of  the  Korean  laundry  was  one  of 
our  most  common  nocturnal  sounds  when  living  near 
the  natives. 

Occasionally  the  noise  would  cease  for  a  time,  indi- 


98  THINGS  KOREAN 

eating  that  some  neighbour  woman,  more  fortunate 
in  completing  her  work,  had  come  in  for  a  bit  of  the 
gossip  to  which  these  women  of  narrow  lives  are  so 
given.  The  common  subject  of  such  gossip  was  likely 
to  be  a  domestic  quarrel  among  their  acquaintances. 

One  of  the  curses  of  the  country  is  the  plural  mar- 
riage, or  more  properly  speaking,  concubinage,  since 
the  introduction  of  another  woman  into  the  family, 
even  if  she  were  given  a  separate  establishment,  was 
sure  to  give  rise  to  bitter  envy  and  animosity. 

Possibly  the  newcomer,  in  honour  of  whose  ad- 
vent the  ironing  had  ceased,  would  tell  of  how 
"  Kim's  wife "  on  learning  that  he  had  taken  a 
concubine,  had  become  so  enraged  that  while  scold- 
ing him  in  tones  audible  to  the  whole  neighbourhood 
she  had  worked  herself  into  such  a  frenzy  that  she 
had  pulled  out  handfuls  of  her  own  hair,  and  when 
Kim,  annoyed  at  the  publicity  given  to  his  short- 
comings, had  called  her  a  name  that  bore  a  reflection 
on  her  ancestry,  she  had  seized  her  ironing-stick  and 
beaten  him  over  the  head  until  he  fell  dead  (un- 
conscious). 

The  secluded  women  of  China  and  Korea  are  cer- 
tainly long-suffering,  but  when  pressed  too  far  they 
will  turn  and  the  fury  into  which  they  then  work 
themselves  is  something  awful  to  contemplate.  The 
ironing-stick  then  becomes  a  reliance  not  to  be  de- 
spised and  one  of  which  the  stronger  sex  may  well 
stand  in  awe. 

A  Fight. — One  requisite  for  a  fight  between  two 
men  is  the  presence  of  peacemakers,  but  when  it  is  a 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS  99 

fight  between  man  and  wife  the  former,  if  decidedly 
in  the  wrong,  will  usually  take  what  he  deserves  in 
the  way  of  tongue  lashings  in  dogged  silence,  but 
sometimes  it  will  be  different  and  he  may  resort  to 
extremes. 

Two  men  may  begin  a  wordy  battle,  separated  it 
may  be  by  the  width  of  the  road,  across  which  space 
they  proceed  to  describe  their  grievances.  They  are 
polite  and  the  man  who  has  the  floor  keeps  it  until 
either  his  arguments  or  his  breath  fail.  They  are 
splendid  talkers  and  this  discussion  is  maintained  in 
loud  tones  so  that  all  the  neighbours  and  the  way- 
farers may  hear. 

Soon  an  interested  crowd  assembles  and  their 
presence  naturally  lends  inspiration  to  the  per- 
formers who  redouble  their  efforts,  until  one  of  them 
may  finally  wind  up  a  severe  tirade  with  a  question 
addressed  to  the  crowd  regarding  the  quality  of  the 
ancestors  of  a  person  who  could  conduct  himself  as 
his  opponent  has  done.  This  will  cause  the  other 
man  to  start  across  the  road  for  the  maligner  of  his 
progenitors  and  then  the  self-appointed  peacemaker 
will  step  out  from  the  crowd  and  attempt  to  restrain 
the  valiant  one,  who,  finding  himself  in  firm  hands, 
will  struggle  with  well-feigned  eagerness  to  get  at 
his  antagonist,  who  by  this  time  is  himself  struggling 
in  the  hands  of  his  own  peacemaker.  Should  one 
of  these  men  actually  wish  to  get  at  his  enemy  he 
can  simply  jump  out  of  his  loose  garments,  which 
will  be  left  in  the  peacemaker's  hands ;  sometimes 
this  happens  accidentally  and  an  unintentioned  en- 


100  THINGS  KOREAN 

counter  is  precipitated.  Ordinarily,  however,  the 
personal  violence  done  on  these  occasions  is  restricted 
to  pulling  hair  or  possibly  drawing  blood  from  an  ac- 
cidental bump  on  the  nose.  Blood  never  fails  to 
calm  both  parties  and  cast  a  spell  over  the  crowd, 
probably  because  of  its  marked  effect  upon  the  white 
garments  thus  ruined. 

Real  fights  are  sometimes  seen,  however,  as  was  one 
I  witnessed  soon  after  reaching  the  country. 

A  Fatal  Encounter. — Riding  along  one  day  I  saw 
two  men  quarrelling  in  front  of  a  house  on  an  eleva- 
tion ahead,  and  as  they  punctured  the  air  with 
gesture  and  epithet  I  smiled  to  myself  at  this  puerile 
method  of  fighting  and  really  longed  to  see  them  go 
at  it  properly.  I  had  my  wish  granted  rather  unex- 
pectedly, for  just  as  I  got  opposite  them  each  man 
threw  off  his  sole  remaining  upper  garment  and,  bare 
to  the  waist,  they  ran  at  each  other.  One  of  them 
ducked  and  caught  the  other  by  the  thighs,  using  the 
momentum  to  throw  him  over  his  head, — a  wonder- 
fully neat  trick.  A  woman  had  rushed  out  of  the 
house  as  the  two  ran  at  each  other  and  her  screams 
and  wailing  now  took  the  place  of  the  previous  war 
of  words.  Suspecting  from  the  woman's  lamenta- 
tions and  the  fact  that  the  man  lay  where  he  had 
fallen,  that  something  serious  had  happened,  I  went 
up  to  see  if  I  might  be  of  any  assistance,  and  found 
the  man  was  dead,  his  neck  having  been  broken  by 
the  fall.  I  never  again  allowed  myself  to  wish  to  see 
any  more  severe  fighting  than  the  ordinary  wordy 
warfare. 


PEASANTS     HULLING     RICE 


See  page  94 


See  page  95 


THE    THREE-MAN     SHOVEL 
City  Wall  in  Distance,  Showing  One  of  the  Smaller  Gates 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS  101 

Manufactures 

While  purely  an  agricultural  race  the  Koreans 
have  from  olden  times  manufactured  what  they 
needed  for  their  own  use.  They  raised  their  own 
cotton  and  wove  it  into  cloth.  They  do  not  use 
wool,  as  sheep  do  not  thrive  in  the  country,  owing  to 
the  presence  of  a  wiry  grass  that  seems  to  be  fatal 
to  them.  For  winter  use  the  cotton  garments  are 
simply  padded  with  cotton  wool. 

Fat  in  Winter,  Lean  in  Summer. — I  became  ac- 
quainted with  one  of  my  early  native  friends  in  the 
winter  season  when  he  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  large, 
portly  man.  He  went  off  to  his  official  post  and  I 
did  not  see  him  again  until  along  in  the  dog  days, 
when  he  came  dressed  in  garments  so  transparent 
that  when  his  flowing  outer  garment  was  removed 
and  he  stood  between  me  and  the  light,  his  whole 
lower  anatomy  was  plainly  visible.  I  could  hardly 
believe  that  this  lean  individual  was  my  portly  friend 
of  the  wintry  days,  until  I  had  considered  the 
layers  of  cotton  wool  he  had  shed  with  the  advent  of 
hot  weather. 

The  native  cloth,  woven  by  the  women  on  little 
hand  looms,  is  still  much  used  for  undergarments  be- 
cause it  stands  washing  well,  but  the  smoother  im- 
ported sheeting  is  taking  the  place  of  the  former  for 
use  in  making  the  outer  garments. 

Brass  Work. — Excellent  work  is  done  in  brass  by 
these  people,  the  pieces  being  turned  on  little  lathes 
in  the  houses,  after  having  been  first  cast  in  as  near 
the  desired  shape  as  possible.     The  dinner  service  of 


J 


102  THINGS  KOEEAN 

all  who  can  afford  it  is  made  of  these  fine  heavy- 
brass  articles.  Numbers  of  sets  of  bowls  have  been 
taken  from  the  country  for  use  among  foreigners  as 
finger-bowls,  for  which  use  they  are  admirably 
adapted,  being  unbreakable  and  taking  on  such  a 
lustre  as  to  resemble  gold.  Girls  save  up  their 
money  and  invest  in  pieces  of  this  brass  against  the 
time  of  their  future  marriage.  The  poor  are  obliged 
to  use  the  very  heavy  pottery  made  in  the  country 
since  the  time  when  the  makers  of  fine  pottery  were 
carried  off  to  Japan. 

Inlaid  Work. — Besides  inlaying  on  wood  with 
mother-of-pearl  in  a  neat  and  most  attractive  pattern, 
they  do  some  very  nice  inlaying  of  silver  on  iron,  the 
pattern  being  first  cut  out  in  the  iron,  after  which  sil- 
ver is  beaten  in,  making  a  very  attractive  work. 

They  are  good  carpenters,  cabinet-makers  and 
joiners,  though  not  nearly  so  deft  as  are  the  Japanese. 
Some  of  their  old  chests  are  works  of  art  and  are 
very  highly  prized  by  foreigners.  Bamboo  and 
woven  work,  such  as  transparent  window  shades,  are 
common,  and  some  very  fine  matting  is  produced  in 
lengths  suitable  for  a  bed. 

No  Incentive  to  Produce. — In  a  land  where  the 
collection  of  taxes  was  farmed  out  and  every  office 
had  its  recognized  price,  as  in  China,  the  rapacious 
official  became  a  curse,  and  there  was  no  incentive  to 
manufacture,  or  raise  more  than  was  necessary  to 
meet  immediate  needs.  The  accumulation  of  visible 
property  was  therefore  found  to  be  a  mistake,  since 
it  but  served  to  excite  the  cupidity  of  the  lynx-eyed 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS     103 

yamen  runners,  who  seemed  never  to  be  at  a  loss  for 
some  pretext  upon  which  to  hale  a  man  of  thrift  be- 
fore the  magistrate,  from  whose  clutches  escape  was 
impossible  without  a  payment  assessed  to  the  sup- 
posed limits  of  the  poor  fellow's  ability  to  pay. 

The  "  Squeeze." — An  official  friend  of  mine,  him- 
self a  very  successful  hand  at  "  squeeze,"  was  in  turn 
haled  before  the  supreme  court  and  squeezed  by  a 
higher  power.  In  commenting  on  this  he  said  to  me 
that  it  seemed  as  though  the  possession  of  property 
by  a  Korean  was  regarded  as  a  crime.  He  certainly 
was  in  position  to  speak  authoritatively  on  the  sub- 
ject, though  I  could  excuse  him  for  much  of  the 
complaint  made  against  him  by  the  people  who  had 
suffered  at  his  hands,  since  he  was  obliged  to  follow 
the  customs  of  the  land  and  get  back  what  he  had 
paid  for  his  office,  together  with  the  necessary 
profit. 

The  uninfluential  peasant  or  labouring  man  had 
ample  reason  therefore  for  not  attempting  to  accumu- 
late visible  property.  He  simply  wanted  enough  to 
keep  him  warm  and  to  satisfy  his  hunger,  tobacco 
for  an  almost  continual  smoke,  and  a  little  wine  now 
and  then  to  make  him  forget  his  lot.  These  with 
sons  to  honour  him  while  living,  and  to  sacrifice  be- 
fore his  tomb  when  gone,  made  up  the  list  of  his  de- 
sires. About  the  only  thing  he  could  be  sure  of 
keeping  to  himself  was  what  he  had  eaten.  Any 
surplus  was  therefore  usually  spent  upon  something 
in  the  nature  of  food  or  that  could  be  secreted  as  se- 
curely as  though  it  had  been  devoured. 


104  THINGS  KOEEAN 

Eating  a  House. — It  was  not  uncommon  to  hear  it 
said  of  a  man  who  had  disposed  of  his  dwelling,  that 
he  had  "  eaten  his  house,"  meaning  that  he  had  con- 
verted the  proceeds  into  a  feast  or  put  them  where 
they  were  as  safe  as  though  eaten. 

In  a  fertile  country,  the  supplying  of  the  few  wants 
above  enumerated,  does  not  require  undue  exertion, 
and  ample  time  is  left  for  sitting  on  heels  under  a 
hillside  tree  and  gazing  over  the  surpassingly  beauti- 
ful valleys,  or  watching  the  travellers  pass  on  the 
winding  road  below,  while  continually  puffing  out 
clouds  of  smoke  from  the  rather  rank  garden  to- 
bacco. 

Amusing  Attitudes. — Seen  from  the  car  windows 
these  figures  have  a  somewhat  ludicrous  appearance 
even  to  the  initiated.  The  queer,  stiff  gauze  hat, 
with  its  wide  rim  and  tall  truncated  cone,  is  carefully 
held  level  on  the  head  of  a  gentleman,  but  the  com- 
mon man  may  not  wear  all  the  apparatus  underneath 
to  hold  the  hat  in  position,  consequently  his  hat  is 
usually  tilted  back  till  it  catches  on  the  top  knot  to 
which  it  is  held  by  the  chin  band,  thus  giving  him  a 
childish  appearance  of  curiosity,  such  as  is  seen  in 
our  youngsters  with  their  hats  on  the  back  of  the 
heads  and  mouths  agape  while  looking  at  some 
curious  object.  Thus,  with  his  white  garments 
bunched  up  about  him,  he  squats  on  his  heels  and 
gazes  down  on  the  train  in  a  condescending  manner 
as  though  himself  quite  superior  to  any  necessity  for 
such  an  absurd  and  bustling  method  of  locomotion. 
With  the  long  bill-like  pipe  protruding  downward 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOEEANS     105 

from  the  mouth,  this  sedate  figure  seems  not  unlike 
some  great  bird  such  as  one  sees  perched  on  rocky 
headlands  off  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  and  as  the  pipe 
is  removed  and  the  black  hat  is  seen  slowly  to  turn 
at  the  shrill  blast  of  the  locomotive  whistle,  one  al- 
most expects  to  see  the  white  figure  spread  its  wings 
and  sail  majestically  away  as  does  the  ocean  bird 
when  disturbed  by  the  noise  of  a  passing  ship. 

Merchants. — There  are  guilds  of  merchants  who 
occupy  quarters  at  the  centre  of  Seoul,  where  in  ad- 
dition to  regulating  the  trade  of  the  country  in  their 
specialty,  they  conduct  a  sort  of  banking  business. 
A  note,  draft,  or  order  for  the  future  or  distant  pay- 
ment of  money,  is  written  in  a  column  on  a  piece  of 
the  parchment-like  paper ;  this  is  sealed  with  red  ink 
and  then  the  paper  is  cut  lengthwise  through  the  seal 
and  the  column  of  characters.  These  two  halves 
when  brought  together  must  match,  so  that  counter- 
feiting is  made  rather  difficult. 

The  headquarters  of  these  guilds  are  quite  exten- 
sive, occupying,  prior  to  the  advent  of  foreigners,  the 
only  two-storied  buildings  outside  the  palaces.  A 
small  bazaar  is  maintained  near  these  buildings,  where 
customers  may  sit  on  the  porches  and  have  goods 
brought  out  and  displayed  to  them.  As  a  rule,  how- 
ever, goods  are  taken  to  the  house  of  an  intending 
purchaser  for  inspection,  as  there  is  practically  no 
shop  display,  all  articles  of  value  being  kept  inside 
under  lock  and  key,  while  the  merchant  sits  cross- 
legged  at  the  door  of  his  little  booth  and  seems  not 
particularly  anxious  to  show  his  wares.     There  are 


106  THINGS  KOEEAN 

little  shops  for  metals,  pottery  ware  and  eatables, 
along  the  streets  with  the  wares  laid  out  for  display- 
where  the  sidewalk  should  be  if  there  were  one. 

A  purchase  requires  much  bargaining,  as  fixed 
prices  are  not  maintained  and  a  customer  is  sized  up 
to  see  how  much  he  will  be  likely  to  stand.  Also 
the  native  servants  usually  receive  a  commission  for 
all  purchases  even  if  they  have  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  transaction.  I  once  stopped  my  horse  in 
front  of  a  shop  and  had  my  native  attendant  ask  the 
price  of  an  article.  The  dealer  told  him  it  was  fifty 
cash  and  he  turned  at  once  to  me  and  said  it  was  one 
hundred  and  fifty  cash.  This  was  rather  on  the  get- 
rich-quick  order  of  doing  things  and  resulted  un- 
favourably to  the  servant,  as  I  had  heard  the  price 
first  named. 

Wholesale  and  Retail.  —  Apparently  it  would 
seem  that  Korean  merchants  reverse  our  accepted  re- 
lation between  wholesale  and  retail  transactions.  A 
business  friend  of  mine  once  desired  some  article  of 
export  that  he  might  assist  the  people  in  paying  for 
the  imported  goods  for  which  their  purchasing 
ability  was  not  equal  to  their  inclination  to  buy.  He 
decided  that  some  small  round  mats,  such  as  are  now 
on  sale  in  our  home  stores,  would  serve  the  purpose 
well ;  he  therefore  called  in  a  native  merchant  of 
standing  with  whom  he  discussed  the  matter.  The 
merchant  declared  he  could  get  any  quantity  of  these 
mats  at  twenty-five  cash  each  (about  five  cents),  and 
my  friend  accordingly  ordered  five  thousand  of  them. 
The  poor  native  gasped  in  astonishment  as  he  faintly 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOEEANS     107 

repeated  the  order,  and  on  collecting  his  senses  he 
said  he  thought  he  might  possibly  get  that  number 
in  time,  but  if  so  many  were  wanted  they  would  cost 
fifty  cash  apiece.  He  had  probably  never  before 
thought  of  so  many  mats  at  one  time. 

Houses 

Korean  houses  are  all  of  one  story.  The  better 
ones  have  roofs  of  tile  which  have  a  concave  slope, 
causing  the  projecting  corners  to  curve  upward  in  a 
very  picturesque  manner. 

In  building  a  house  the  roof  is  constructed  first, 
that  is  the  great  timbers  are  erected  on  large  stones 
set  in  prepared  beds ;  heavy  beams  are  then  mortised 
to  these  uprights.  Usually  the  whole  log,  neatly 
dressed,  is  used  for  the  cross-beams  above  which 
comes  the  support  for  the  stringers  which  hold  the 
heavy  round  rafters.  The  rafters  are  covered  with  a 
close  layer  of  split  wood,  and  upon  this  layer  is 
placed  a  thick  coating  of  earth  in  which  the  tile  are 
imbedded. 

The  floor  is  next  prepared.  For  the  rooms  to  be 
heated  a  system  of  flues  is  built  leading  from  a  fire- 
place (which  fireplace  also  forms  the  kitchen  in  a 
small  house)  under  the  floor  to  a  chimney  which  may 
be  some  feet  from  the  building.  Over  these  flues  is 
laid  a  floor  of  flat  limestone  which  is  neatly  cemented 
and  finally  covered  with  the  thick  rich  oil  paper  of 
the  country,  thus  making  a  tight  floor  through  which 
the  smoke  is  prevented  from  escaping  into  the  white 
papered  room. 


108  THINGS  KOKEAN 

The  walls  of  the  house  are  filled  in  after  the  roof 
and  floor  have  been  prepared.  First  a  wattle  ar- 
rangement, corresponding  to  our  lathing,  is  put  in 
around  the  windows  and  doors  and  between  the  up- 
rights ;  upon  this  neat  coats  of  plaster  are  laid  and 
the  whole  is  covered  with  white  paper  on  the  inside 
when  dry.  These  walls,  on  their  outer  aspect,  are 
given  a  rather  imposing  and  substantial  appearance 
by  being  faced  with  stones  to  the  height  of  a 
man,  thus  protecting  the  plastered  walls  from  the 
weather ;  the  unfaced  portion  above  being  protected 
by  the  wide  overhanging  eaves.  These  stones,  about 
the  size  of  cobblestones,  are  laid  with  their  smooth- 
est face  out ;  they  are  simply  stuck  in  a  bed  of  mud 
and  tied  to  the  framework  of  the  house  by  straw 
rope,  but  when  neatly  plastered  between  each  stone 
they  present  a  fine  appearance  so  long  as  kept  in 
order. 

Sanitation. — This  is  largely  characterized  by  its 
absence.  A  British  consul-general  in  Seoul,  who 
was  Irish  by  birth,  once  assured  me  that  the  Korean 
peasant  houses  were  more  comfortable  than  and  quite 
as  clean  and  sanitary  as  are  those  of  the  Irish  peas- 
ants. While  pigs  and  fowls  are  not  allowed  in  the 
Korean  houses  as  in  the  Irish  ones,  unfortunately  the 
chief  adornment  of  the  front  gate  or  door  is  apt  to  be 
a  slimy  pit  into  which  the  filth  and  rubbish  are 
dumped  to  ferment  against  the  next  plowing  time. 

Smells. — During  the  slack  farming  season  the  roads 
are  made  malodorous  by  a  continuous  procession  of 
bulls  and  ponies  laden  with  great  panniers  of  this  fer- 


THE    LAUNDRY    AND    MANGLE 

"Woman's   Weapon" 


See  page  97 


THREE    MEN    SAWING    ONE    STICK 
Two  to  Saw  and  One  to  Hold 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOBEANS     109 

tilizer  which  is  being  packed  off  to  the  farms.  It  is 
the  long-to-be-remembered  meeting  with  one  of  these 
noisome  caravans  that  gives  visitors  the  ineradicable 
impression  that  Korea  is  a  land  of  filth  and  smells. 
The  smells  are  certainly  rather  rank  at  times  but  they 
are  nothing  like  so  poisonous  as  were  those  from  the 
old  Chicago  River  when  a  tug  plowed  through  the 
stagnant  mush  and  allowed  the  escaping  gas  to  rise 
and  stifle  pedestrians  on  the  bridge. 

In  China  the  handling  of  this  fertilizer  is  rendered 
even  more  objectionable,  for  there  men  are  to  be  met 
in  the  crowded  streets  at  any  time  of  day,  bearing 
dripping  buckets  of  this  fresh  material  swung  on 
shoulder  poles  and  causing  the  air  of  the  whole  street 
to  fairly  reek. 

The  natives  have  become  inured  to  these  odours 
from  long  experience,  but  it  is  really  astonishing  how 
they  can  thrive  and  still  breathe  the  poisonous  air  of 
their  little  eight  feet  square  sleeping  rooms,  into 
which  six  or  eight  persons  may  crowd  and  sleep  on 
the  heated  floor.  The  odour  encountered  on  opening 
the  door  to  enter  one  of  these  rooms  is  beyond  de- 
scription and  would  drive  a  white  man  out  into  the 
worst  of  weather  choking  for  breath.  It  must  be 
that  only  the  fittest  have  survived.  I  have  seen 
Chinese  and  Koreans  asleep  on  the  edge  of  a  cess- 
pool or  drain,  on  a  hot  afternoon  with  the  sun  beat- 
ing down  on  their  unprotected  heads  and  the  flies 
walking  all  over  them  and  into  their  gaping  mouths, 
leaving  tracks  of  the  slime  from  the  near-by  pit,  and 
yet  they  seem  to  thrive. 


110  THINGS  KOREAN 

It  is  said  that  when  Li  Hung  Chang  went  to 
Shanghai  to  attend  the  opening  of  the  new  water- 
works that  was  to  give  the  city  pure  water,  in  place 
of  the  filth-laden  ditch  water  that  had  proven  fatal 
to  so  many  foreigners,  he  announced  on  taking  a 
drink  from  the  new  supply,  that  it  lacked  body. 

An  Awful  Immersion. — One  day  a  very  fastidious 
missionary  lady  was  riding  a  gentle  old  horse  near 
Seoul,  with  a  native  girl  seated  behind.  In  turning 
out  from  the  road  near  one  of  these  great  receptacles 
just  mentioned,  the  horse  lost  his  footing  and  his  rear 
quarters  slowly  slid  into  the  pit.  The  two  poor  fe- 
males went  off  backwards  over  their  heads  in  this 
awful  mire — and  they  were  miles  from  home. 

House  Snakes. — The  thick  layer  of  earth  under 
the  roof  tiles  of  a  Korean  house  makes  a  nice  place 
for  the  innumerable  sparrows  to  nest.  The  birds  and 
their  eggs  in  turn  attract  rats  and  house  snakes,  the 
latter  being  a  harmless  variety  about  three  feet  long 
and  as  large  as  one's  arm.  Since  the  snakes  destroy 
the  rats  and  help  to  keep  down  the  sparrows,  they 
are  not  molested  unless  they  chance  to  make  a  mis- 
take and  drop  through  into  a  room.  Such  an  occur- 
rence is  regarded  as  being  an  ill  omen  and  when  it 
occurs  at  the  palace  the  whole  building  is  aban- 
doned. 

I  knew  of  an  English  missionary  lady  who  chanced 
to  turn  over  her  pillow  as  she  was  about  to  retire  to 
her  cot  on  the  warm  floor  of  a  native  house  in  the 
country,  and  there  she  saw  one  of  these  large  house 
snakes  comfortably  curled  up. 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOREANS     111 

Another  lady  went  to  her  flour  barrel  in  a  dark 
storeroom  and  finding  something  soft  on  the  lid  she 
investigated  and  saw  a  snake  coiled  all  over  the  circu- 
lar space  of  the  barrel  cover. 

On  bright  warm  days  in  the  spring  these  snakes 
often  come  out  upon  the  roofs  to  sun  themselves, 
where  they  are  soon  discovered  by  the  sparrows  that 
regard  them  with  just  hatred,  and  they  begin  a  most 
excited  chattering  and  dashing  at  and  about  the 
snake.  Messengers  fly  off  and  collect  companies  of 
the  valiant  magpies  that  certainly  do  enjoy  a  fight, 
and  they  soon  drive  the  snake  to  cover  by  their 
vicious  pecks. 

Magpies. — A  Korean  house  would  not  be  com- 
plete without  its  sparrows  and  magpies, — those 
friendly  birds  that  seem  to  go  wherever  man  goes  in 
that  country.  They  seem  to  dislike  cats  as  do  the 
Koreans  and  the  magpies  particularly  will  attack  a 
cat  on  sight.  It  used  to  be  amusing  to  see  a  young 
and  venturesome  foreign  cat  try  to  stalk  a  magpie, 
to  the  evident  delight  of  the  latter  who  would  surely 
lead  the  cat  on  until  in  good  position  away  from  the 
house,  when  the  bird  would  turn  and  before  the  cat 
knew  what  had  happened  fur  would  be  flying  and  he 
himself  would  be  dashing  for  safety  under  the  house. 
One  such  encounter  was  usually  enough  to  teach  a 
cat  caution. 

These  impudent  birds  are  very  inquisitive  and 
seem  to  have  quite  a  sense  of  humour.  In  Nanking 
they  seemed  unable  to  comprehend  the  meaning  of 
our  glass  windows,  yet  they  could  not  give  up  trying 


112  THINGS  KOEEAN 

to  see  what  it  was  that  prevented  their  passing  through 
that  particular  space.  They  would  cling  to  the  sash 
and  beat  at  the  glass  with  their  bills  till  it  seemed  they 
must  break  either  one  or  the  other.  They  seemed 
much  amused  with  a  row  of  fine  tulips  in  our  garden 
at  Seoul,  and  numbers  of  them  would  blacken  the 
legation  lawns  taking  their  turns  in  running  up  and 
pulling  out  a  tulip  leaf.  Shooting  at  them  afforded 
only  temporary  relief,  so  a  few  of  the  dead  birds  were 
planted  in  the  tulip  beds  with  the  bills  and  wing  tips 
protruding  from  the  ground.  This  brought  on  a 
careful  investigation,  with  much  chattering  and 
preening  of  necks,  after  which  they  all  flew  away 
and  the  grounds  were  deserted  by  magpies  for  some 
time  thereafter. 

On  one  occasion  I  put  out  strychnine  in  meat  to 
kill  some  abandoned  cats  that  occupied  the  gable  of 
a  deserted  house  near  where  we  were  then  living. 
Some  magpies  got  the  poison  and  flew  up  into  an 
ancient  gnarled  tree  to  devour  it.  After  a  time  one 
suddenly  dropped  to  the  ground  and  fluttered  for  a 
while,  causing  much  consternation  on  the  part  of  its 
companions,  some  of  which  walked  about  the  pros- 
trate form  while  others  flew  off  calling  shrilly  and 
collecting  numbers  of  other  magpies.  Soon  the  little 
yard  near  us  and  about  the  old  tree  was  black  with 
the  birds,  seemingly  very  intent  upon  watching  two 
apparently  old  ones,  that  appeared  to  be  holding  a 
consultation  over  the  dead  bird.  It  was  all  so  human- 
like that  it  made  me  feel  creepy  as  though  they  might 
pronounce  me  guilty  of  murder.     Finally  the  two  old 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOREANS     113 

birds  took  the  prostrate  one  by  its  wings  and  tried  to 
fly  up  with  it  but  with  no  success ;  the  poor  thing  fell 
back  with  a  thud.  While  this  was  going  on  another 
bird  fell  to  the  ground,  and  then  a  third,  whereupon 
as  with  one  accord  they  all  flew  away  and  no  mag- 
pies seemed  to  light  on  that  tree  thereafter. 

A  Devil  Tree. — Incidentally  this  served  us  an- 
other good  purpose,  for  a  native  family  were  in  the 
habit  of  assembling  in  the  space  under  that  ancient 
tree  to  hold  their  nightly  lamentations  for  a  recently 
deceased  member  of  their  family.  As  it  was  just 
across  the  wall  from  our  bedrooms  this  wailing  had 
become  most  distressing  to  us  though  we  saw  no  way 
of  interfering  with  it.  When  it  became  evident  to 
them,  however,  that  the  old  tree  was  possessed  of 
certain  devils  of  such  malignancy  that  a  bird  alight- 
ing upon  it,  or  a  cat  climbing  it,  would  be  struck 
dead,  the  family  made  their  lamentations  somewhere 
else  and  even  walled  in  the  space  under  the  tree  lest 
some  child  go  there  and  be  seized  by  evil  spirits. 
Thus  were  we  relieved  of  cats,  mourners,  and  mag- 
pies at  one  and  the  same  time. 

Rats. — Rats  are  a  great  nuisance  in  Korea  and  if 
plague  should  ever  be  introduced  into  the  land  and 
spread  to  the  rats  its  ravages  would  be  awful  to  con- 
template. The  destruction  of  property  by  these 
vermin  is  so  great  as  to  be  quite  beyond  the  compre- 
hension of  the  ordinary  native  who  would  naturally 
think  so  small  an  animal  could  not  eat  very  much, 
forgetting  what  millions  might  do ;  thus  they  take  no 
measures  to  rid  themselves  of  the  pest. 


114  THINGS  KOKEAN 

Rats  Like  False  Teeth.— The  nimble  little  thieves 
will  take  almost  anything  moveable.  Once  they  stole 
a  new  set  of  false  teeth  from  a  missionary  who  had 
gone  to  Japan  to  fit  himself  out  with  this  conveni- 
ence. Returning  on  a  native  steamer,  he  lost  his 
teeth  which  were  finally  found,  after  much  hunting, 
in  a  rats'  nest  inside  the  walls  of  his  cabin. 

Rats  in  Ceilings. — They  will  tear  off  the  upper 
surface  of  the  paper  ceilings  to  get  the  flour  paste 
with  which  the  layers  of  paper  have  been  applied. 
In  stripping  off  this  taut  paper  it  makes  a  noise  like 
the  beating  of  a  drum.  I  well  remember  my  first 
experience  with  this  noise.  I  had  just  landed  in 
Seoul  and  was  spending  the  night  in  a  native  house 
with  my  Chinese  attendant.  We  had  no  beds,  but 
slept  on  the  floor  and  as  I  was  using  my  shoes  for  a 
pillow,  sleep  was  perhaps  not  very  sound,  at  any  rate 
we  were  soon  brought  up  wide  awake  by  what 
seemed  to  be  the  roll  of  a  drum  close  at  hand.  We 
got  the  natives  up  and  my  Chinaman  wrote  to  them 
in  the  character  telling  them  of  our  trouble,  at  which 
the  men  smiled  and  explained  that  it  was  simply  the 
rats,  showing  us  how  to  strike  the  paper  ceiling  with 
our  hands  to  drive  the  animals  away.  After  that  we 
spent  much  of  our  time  hitting  the  ceiling. 

Cats. — I  afterwards  secured  a  foreign  cat  from  one 
of  our  ships  and  established  a  fine  breed  of  cats 
that  soon  rid  our  own  house  and  the  houses  of  our 
friends  from  the  plague  of  rats. 

Cats  are  not  very  common  and  are  not  made 
house  pets  as  with  us.     Some  of  the  natives  have  as 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS     115 

great  an  antipathy  to  them  as  we  have  to  snakes. 
Twice  have  I  seen  high  Korean  officials  faint  at 
dinner  at  a  foreign  legation  when  the  family  cat  ac- 
cidentally strayed  into  the  room.  One  of  these  men 
who  was  sitting  next  to  me  on  one  occasion  suddenly 
pitched  over,  his  wide  hat  brim  upsetting  his 
glasses,  while  his  face  fell  in  his  plate.  I  carried  him 
out  and  as  he  revived  in  the  air  he  exclaimed  the 
native  word  for  cat.  A  kitten  had  strolled  unob- 
served into  the  dining-room,  and  as  the  Korean  was 
sitting  where  its  mistress  usually  sat,  the  kitten  climbed 
the  ample  gowns  of  the  Korean  and  ensconsed  itself  in 
his  lap.  Imagine  looking  down  and  finding  a  snake 
curled  up  in  your  lap  at  a  dinner  table  in  some 
strange  place  and  you  will  appreciate  how  the 
Korean  felt. 

Hospitality 

The  Koreans  are  a  very  hospitable  people. 
Formerly  there  were  practically  no  beggars  in  the 
land,  but  after  we  had  maintained  marine  guards  at 
the  various  legations  for  some  time,  the  practice  of 
the  generous  sailors  and  marines  of  throwing  coins 
to  the  street  urchins,  served  to  raise  up  quite  a 
company  of  mendicants. 

Guards. — These  guards  were  a  source  of  great 
interest  to  the  natives,  particularly  at  the  hours  of 
their  meals.  There  were  always  numbers  of  hungry 
native  boys  on  hand  to  eat  up  the  scraps,  and  the 
American  guard  was  most  popular  on  such  occasions 
because  of  the  extensive  and  generous  menu  they 


116  THINGS  KOREAN 

enjoyed.  The  Russians  lived  largely  on  rich 
vegetable  soup  and  black  bread,  while  the  French 
also  consumed  much  soup.  The  Americans  how- 
ever had  plenty  of  meat  with  puddings  and  other 
dishes  containing  sugar.  The  natives  declared  that 
the  American  guard  lived  like  yangbans  (officials), 
while  the  others  were  the  sangnoms  or  common  people. 

China's  Beggar  and  Thief  Guild. — In  China  the 
beggars  are  regularly  organized  in  guilds  with  well- 
defined  districts  wherein  their  business  may  be 
prosecuted.  Residents  make  regular  contributions 
to  these  guilds  and  thus  secure  immunity  from  an- 
noyance. The  same  is  true  of  the  thieves  who  are 
organized  in  guilds  and  any  one  contributing  regu- 
larly to  the  guild  is  undisturbed,  while  if  he  should 
lose  property  by  theft  it  is  recovered  for  him,  since 
theft  in  such  case  would  be  an  accident. 

Korea  does  not  have  such  guilds,  which  is  some- 
times regarded  as  unfortunate.  Ancient  China  has 
in  fact  profited  much  by  the  experience  of  centuries 
and  in  cases  where  a  human  frailty  is  beyond  cor- 
rection they  take  measures  to  protect  themselves 
against  an  undesirable  manifestation  of  such  failing. 

Kind  Reception. — We  were  greatly  pleased  with 
our  reception  in  Korea.  Our  residence  in  China 
had  shown  us  that  foreigners  were  not  wanted  in 
that  country  where  we  went  by  the  name  of  foreign 
devils,  and  were  visited  with  a  sort  of  vicarious 
punishment  for  the  treatment  bestowed  upon  the  so- 
called  *  Chinks  "  in  America. 

In  Korea  on  the  contrary,  we  were  treated  with 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS     117 

the  respect  shown  to  the  official  class.  Instead  of 
having  the  dogs  set  upon  us  as  in  China,  when  a 
dog  rushed  out  to  bark  at  us  some  Korean  would 
promptly  call  him  off,  while  instead  of  being  jostled 
or  ill-handled  in  a  crowd,  a  way  would  always  be 
opened  for  our  passage. 

A  Stoning. — Once  in  Nanking  I  went  with  a 
sturdy  old  missionary  to  see  the  great  competitive 
examination,  where  thousands  of  aspirants  for  rank 
and  position  were  seated  in  little  booths  in  the  great 
examination  hall  grounds,  engaged  in  writing  essays 
on  the  classics,  while  thousands  of  sightseers  surged 
through  the  passages. 

An  old  beggar  woman  who  carried  a  little  fire  pot, 
was  pushed  against  me  by  some  rowdies  and  her  pot 
dropped  to  the  pavement  and  was  broken.  It  was 
worth  a  few  cents  and  we  were  as  anxious  to  pay  as 
she  was  vociferous  in  her  demands  for  payment.  We 
had  no  small  money,  however,  and  my  friend  tried  in 
vain  to  satisfy  her  by  promises.  The  crowd  took  up 
the  matter  and  we  were  roughly  handled.  Failing 
to  get  any  protection  my  friend,  who  was  no  coward 
and  had  a  bullet  in  his  leg  as  a  relic  of  valiant  service 
in  the  navy  during  our  war  of  the  rebellion, 
announced  that  we  would  have  to  run  for  it.  The 
old  bullet  prevented  him  from  doing  much  execution 
as  a  runner,  and  soon  a  paving  brick  which  struck 
me  in  the  side  reduced  my  wind  so  that  I  was  in 
little  better  shape.  By  cutting  across  lots  we  finally 
reached  home  and  got  a  message  to  the  magistrate 
which  prevented  further  trouble. 


118  THINGS  KOEEAN 

Vicarious  Atonement. — The  Chinese  have  a  very 
clever  method  of  meting  out  justice  in  such  cases. 
Once  when  living  beyond  the  native  city  of  Shanghai, 
we  were  riding  along  the  road  outside  the  city  wall, 
on  our  way  to  the  foreign  settlement.  We  were 
seated  on  either  side  of  a  passenger  wheelbarrow,  the 
wheel  coming  up  between  us  in  a  frame  which  served 
as  an  arm  rest.  Some  men  on  the  wall  began  abus- 
ing us  and  calling  us  foreign  devils,  and  as  their 
courage  waxed  with  their  efforts,  they  began  stoning 
us.  Maybe  one  of  them  had  been  to  America  and 
had  received  similar  treatment  for  which  he  was  now 
getting  even.  Arrived  at  the  settlement  a  friend,  to 
whom  I  related  the  incident,  took  it  to  the  native  of- 
ficial, who  called  up  the  head  man  of  that  ward  and 
had  him  flogged  ;  he  passed  on  the  punishment  to  the 
head  man  of  that  group  of  houses,  and  this  dignitary 
in  turn  punished  those  under  him  until  the  proper 
man  may  have  been  reached.  We  were  never  after- 
wards molested  at  that  place. 

A  feeble  imitation  of  this  sort  of  vicarious  punish- 
ment is  practised  in  Korea,  but  it  seems  not  to  be  so 
well  understood  as  in  China  and  is  therefore  not  so 
effectual. 

Burdensome  Hospitality — Hospitality  among  the 
Koreans  extends  to  comparative  strangers.  I  re- 
member being  at  the  house  of  a  native  friend  at 
about  the  time  of  the  morning  meal,  and  noticing 
many  tables  of  food  being  taken  in  to  his  guest 
house,  I  asked  if  he  were  entertaining  company, 
whereupon  he  let  me  look  into  the  room  which  was 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOEEANS     119 

filled  with  men  sitting  on  the  floor,  each  with  a  table 
of  food  before  him.  He  explained  that  they  were 
men  from  the  country  who  had  come  to  Seoul  on 
business,  and  those  who  did  not  know  him  knew 
some  acquaintance  of  his  which  gave  them  an  excuse 
for  calling  and  then  for  remaining  and  eating  his 
food. 

This  is  one  of  the  burdens  of  the  well-to-do  in 
Korea.  When  prosperity  comes  to  a  man,  relatives 
whom  he  may  have  never  seen,  come  to  live  on  him 
and  bring  their  friends.  This  has  its  compensations, 
however,  for  when  a  man's  house  is  so  sought  by  num- 
bers it  is  an  indication  that  he  is  prosperous  or  has 
influence  at  court.  These  companions  of  prosperity 
soon  take  their  leave  at  the  first  rumour  of  a  change 
in  fortunes,  for  in  case  some  enemy  has  succeeded  in 
undermining  their  patron  at  court,  his  arrest  may  be 
ordered,  in  which  case  the  hangers-on  may  some- 
times be  made  to  suffer  for  their  friendship.  So  as 
long  as  the  horde  remains  it  is  a  good  indication 
that  prosperity  is  smiling  upon  that  particular 
house. 

Food 
Rice. — Rice  is  the  chief  article  of  diet,  being  eaten 
dry  with  no  salt  or  dressing.  Beans,  and  noodles 
made  of  flour,  are  also  much  used.  The  meal  is 
served  on  little  individual  tables  a  few  inches  from 
the  floor.  There  may  be  soup,  fish,  meat  and  rel- 
ishes, in  addition  to  the  rice,  beans  or  noodles,  but 
the  chief  article  in  the  way  of  vegetables  is  a  salted 


120  THINGS  KOEEAN 

cabbage  or  turnip,  which  supplies  the  salt  needed  for 
the  tasteless  rice. 

Kimche. — This  salted  vegetable,  called  kimche,  is 
prepared  from  cabbages  or  turnips  as  the  foundation, 
mixed  with  red  peppers,  oysters,  oil  and  garlic,  all 
put  down  in  brine  and  allowed  to  ferment  for  about 
two  months.  There  may  be  as  many  as  one  hundred 
and  forty  ingredients  in  the  mixture,  which  is  packed 
in  great  earthenware  kangs  the  size  of  a  barrel. 
When  ready  to  serve  it  is  crisp,  and  when  made 
without  the  garlic,  it  is  simply  delicious.  I  seem 
to  have  been  one  of  the  few  foreigners  who  took  to 
this  article  of  food  and  I  always  had  it  put  down  for 
winter  consumption  minus  the  garlic,  which  deprived 
it  of  its  objectionable  odour. 

The  odour  of  genuine  kimche  in  all  its  strength  is 
something  remarkable.  I  can  best  describe  it  by 
giving  an  account  of  my  introduction  to  it.  This 
happened  in  the  early  days,  when  I  was  conducting 
a  hospital  where  neglected  cases  were  plenty  and  bad 
odours  were  very  common.  Entering  my  home  office 
one  day  I  was  met  with  a  most  penetrating  smell 
such  as  I  was  not  apparently  acquainted  with.  Call- 
ing the  servants  I  remonstrated  with  them  for  allow- 
ing patients  to  come  there  when  they  were  under 
instructions  to  send  them  to  the  hospital.  They  de- 
clared no  sick  people  had  been  admitted  and  when 
we  entered,  after  opening  the  windows,  to  make  an 
investigation,  we  found  the  odour  came  from  an  un- 
suspicious looking  little  jar  left  there  by  a  grateful 
patient. 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS     121 

It  was  a  jar  of  the  ripest  and  rankest  of  kimche, 
which  was  at  once  ordered  to  be  thrown  out.  From 
the  perfumed  breaths  of  the  coolies,  thereafter,  it  was 
evident  they  appreciated  it  even  if  I  could  not.  Later 
I  was  induced  to  taste  some  of  this  compound  made 
without  garlic  and  it  won  me  at  once,  leaving  a  mem- 
ory that  haunts  me  pleasantly  still. 

Odours. — After  all,  the  effect  of  various  odours  is 
largely  a  matter  of  education.  The  stifling  smell  of 
the  sulphurous  and  tarry  soft  coal  smoke  poured 
forth  by  the  steam  locomotives  positively  alarms  the 
Koreans.  It  seems  to  them  to  be  a  deadly  poison. 
The  odour  of  our  ripe  cheese  is  another  that  a  Korean 
cannot  accustom  himself  to.  That  delicious  fruit,  the 
durian,  to  be  had  at  Singapore,  is  so  very  offensive 
as  to  cause  many  travellers  to  lose  the  opportunity 
of  enjoying  its  rich  pulp,  while  the  natives  think 
nothing  of  its  odour.  The  odour  of  kimche  is  most 
agreeable  therefore  to  the  Korean,  who  would  turn 
positively  sick  upon  smelling  limburger. 

Milk  and  Sugar — Speaking  of  cheese,  it  is  re- 
markable that  in  Korea  where  are  to  be  found  such 
fine  large  cattle,  there  is  no  use  made  of  milk,  and 
this  too  in  a  land  of  such  poverty  that  it  would  seem 
that  all  proper  foods  would  be  cherished  as  such. 
True  they  know  the  use  of  milk,  since  children,  in- 
valids and  the  aged  use  human  milk,  but  the  milking 
of  cows  is  not  practised  by  the  people.  Of  late  they 
have  taken  to  the  use  of  our  sweet  condensed  milk, 
through  the  recommendations  of  the  foreign  physi- 
cians who  have  prescribed  it  for  children.     There  is 


122  THINGS  KOEEAN 

now  quite  a  trade  in  this  article,  which  the  people 
like  because  of  its  extreme  sweetness — in  a  land  de- 
void of  sugar,  except  the  sweet  of  honey,  and  that 
obtained  from  rice  and  similar  grains.  An  American 
living  at  the  gold  mines,  made  some  excellent  maple 
syrup  from  the  native  maples  growing  there,  showing 
that  the  poor  natives  have  neglected  some  splendid 
opportunities  right  at  hand,  notably  milk  and  sugar. 

A  Food  Maxim. — The  Korean  habit  of  making  up 
the  food  into  little  pats  or  boluses,  easy  to  handle 
with  chop-sticks,  using  their  not  overly  clean  hands 
in  the  process,  causes  the  initiated  to  care  little  for 
sampling  native  food  except  such  as  is  handled  in 
bulk,  like  rice  or  kimche. 

The  natives  themselves  are  wise  in  this  regard  and 
they  will  quote  you  a  proverb  to  the  effect  that  he 
who  would  enjoy  his  food  should  not  look  over  the 
kitchen  wall.  This  proverb  was  given  by  a  former 
king  who  delighted  in  slipping  out  in  disguise  and 
seeing  things  for  himself.  Returning  from  a  stroll 
of  this  character  on  one  occasion,  he  looked  over  the 
wall  that  surrounded  the  kitchen  area  of  his  palace, 
and  saw  the  final  preparations  for  his  evening  meal. 

A  very  dirty  scullery  maid  had  just  prepared  a 
pyramid  of  luscious  persimmons  on  a  little  table. 
The  fruit  was  dead  ripe  and  the  juicy  pulp  almost 
burst  the  delicate  glossy  skin  that  held  it.  The  maid 
surveyed  her  work  with  evident  satisfaction  and 
stooped  to  take  up  the  table,  when  a  little  whirlpool 
of  dust  came  twirling  along  and  sprinkled  a  column 
of  grit  all  over  the  fruit,  rendering  it  unfit  to  place 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS     123 

before  her  royal  master.  The  poor  creature  wept,  for 
she  had  no  more  fruit ;  it  was  time  to  serve  the  meal, 
and  the  tender  skin  of  the  persimmons  would  not 
bear  wiping  without  bursting,  and  rendering  them 
useless.  Suddenly  as  she  stood  weeping,  a  bright 
thought  came  to  her.  She  got  a  fresh  table,  and, 
picking  up  the  fruit  tenderly,  one  by  one,  she  care- 
fully licked  off  each  one  and  set  it  on  the  new  table 
all  ready  for  the  attendant  to  take  in  to  the  king. 
Hence  the  proverb. 

Amusements  and  Pastimes  of  Old  and  Young 
Intrigue. — The  common  people  have  few  amuse- 
ments. Travelling  through  the  country  one  often 
notices  at  a  hamlet  two  or  more  men  off  by  them- 
selves engaged  in  whispered  conversation.  These 
men  are  surely  plotting  to  gain  some  advantage  over 
another.  Entertain  an  official  alone,  even  in  a  large 
room,  and  he  will  edge  up  to  you  and  begin  to  whis- 
per. It  is  the  same  manifestation  of  the  native  apti- 
tude for  intrigue,  which  makes  them  excellent  as 
starters  and  destroyers,  but  unsatisfactory  as  sustain- 
ed of  an  undertaking.  It  seems  that  in  many  cases 
this  tendency  is  given  scope  rather  for  the  excitement 
it  furnishes  than  from  pure  malice.  The  villagers 
schemed  against  their  head  man  or  plotted  some 
charge  against  a  successful  neighbour ;  the  court  of- 
ficial plead  for  the  influence  of  the  foreigner  to  en- 
hance his  own  power  at  court ;  in  both  cases  it  was 
the  same  game  of  politics  in  all  its  petty  meanness. 
This  habit  of  falling   so   naturally   into   intrigue 


124  THINGS  KOEEAN 

might  well  be  the  result  of  the  almost  utter  lack  of 
stimulating  amusements.  Our  own  people  go  to  the 
play  and  get  wrought  up  over  the  crimes  of  the  vil- 
lain, knowing  that  he  will  get  his  deserts  before  the 
curtain  falls,  but  the  Korean  has  to  act  the  play  him- 
self or  lose  all  such  excitement.  Naturally  he  will 
try  to  take  a  part  that  will  be  to  his  advantage. 

Itinerant  Performers. — Just  let  a  blind  singer  or  a 
slack-rope  performer  come  along  and  all  these  plots 
will  be  dropped  for  the  time,  while  feasting  eyes  and 
ears  upon  the  unusual  entertainment. 

So  highly  prized  are  these  itinerant  displays  that 
when  I  went  with  the  Koreans  in  Washington  to  see 
one  of  our  great  circus  performances,  they  calmly  as- 
sured me  they  had  the  same  in  Korea.  My  disap- 
pointment at  their  lack  of  appreciation  of  our  "great- 
est show  on  earth  "  was  so  pronounced  that,  in  later 
years,  one  of  these  men  invited  me  to  a  Korean 
"  show,"  in  order  to  prove  the  excellence  of  their 
own.  It  was  simply  a  slack-rope  performance  in  the 
open,  where  two  men  in  full  flowing  robes  actually 
did  perform  wonderfully  well,  while  thousands  of  na- 
tive spectators  stood  open-mouthed  and  wide-eyed, 
wholly  engrossed  in  and  completely  satisfied  with  the 
display  of  skill.  True  it  was  like  our  performance, 
and  apparently  the  Koreans  preferred  it  to  ours. 

A  playhouse  seemed  to  be  even  more  needed  for 
the  adult  poor  than  schools,  since  it  would  give  them 
something  to  think  of  and  with  which  to  satisfy  their 
craving  for  amusement,  thus  checking  petty  schem- 
ing. 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOBEANB     125 

The  Theatre. — In  time  a  theatre  was  opened  on 
semi-foreign  lines,  where  creditable  sleight-of-hand 
and  slack-rope  performances  alternated  with  dancing 
and  pantomime,  before  large  and  deeply  impressed 
audiences — audiences  that  were  in  themselves  most 
interesting,  since  high  and  low  sat  side  by  side  pro- 
viding they  had  the  price  of  a  seat.  It  was  a  leveller 
after  the  style  of  the  trolley  car.  Even  women  at- 
tended and  sat  in  a  portion  of  the  house  screened  off 
for  their  use,  gazing  for  the  first  time,  maybe,  at  the 
games  that  had  amused  their  rulers  for  centuries,  for 
some  of  the  performers  were  actors  borrowed  from 
the  palace,  who  performed  for  the  people  the  simple 
acts  commonly  given  before  their  rulers. 

Palace  Sports. — Of  course  the  ruling  classes  have 
what  takes  the  place  of  plays  with  us,  but  with  the 
exception  noted  above,  there  are  no  playhouses. 
The  best  performances  are  given  at  the  palace  before 
the  royal  family  and  the  assembled  officials.  These 
consist  of  dances  by  the  class  of  public  dancing  girls 
or  gesang,  together  with  some  male  country  dances 
with  songs.  The  people  do  not  dance  for  themselves, 
but  sit  and  look  on  while  it  is  done  for  them. 

One  dance  given  by  these  girls  is  called  the  sword 
dance  and  is  quite  rapid  and  graceful  towards  the 
end,  usually  eliciting  considerable  praise  from  foreign- 
ers. There  is  the  dance  of  the  storks,  in  which  two 
men  disguised  as  great  storks  dance  about  a  large 
lotus  flower,  drawing  gradually  nearer  and  making 
many  feints  at  the  blossom,  until  finally  they  do  peck 
open  the  pink  petals,  when  out  steps  a  dainty  little 


126  THINGS  KOEEAN 

gesang.  Tigers,  each  made  up  of  two  men  cleverly 
disguised,  do  a  grotesque  dance  that  never  fails  to 
afford  a  delightful  state  of  alarm  to  the  children. 
There  are  dancing  and  musical  contests  consisting  in 
rythmic  gestures  ending  in  an  attempt  to  throw  a 
silken  ball  through  an  opening  in  an  ornamental 
arch.  This  is  performed  by  a  train  of  dancing  girls 
and  affords  great  amusement,  since  the  winners  get 
flowers  stuck  in  the  mass  of  false  hair  which  adorns 
their  heads,  while  those  who  lose  get  a  black  mark 
on  the  cheek.  Later  the  ones  adorned  with  flowers 
are  each  presented  with  a  roll  of  silk. 

Some  such  entertainment  usually  followed  the  fre- 
quent banquets  given  at  the  palace  to  the  diplomatic 
officials  by  the  very  hospitable  court,  and  they  were 
always  appreciated  at  first,  but  by  frequent  repetition 
these  dances  became  insufferably  monotonous.  It 
actually  seemed  depressing  to  think  that  in  all  the 
ages  past  this  had  been  the  choicest  amusement 
possible  to  the  most  exalted  in  that  land.  It  is  not 
strange  that  they  turned  to  intrigue  for  excite- 
ment. 

Gesang. — The  dancing  girls  are  recruited  from  the 
people.  A  poor  man  having  several  daughters 
would  give  a  particularly  comely  one  to  the  govern- 
ment, by  which  she  would  be  educated  in  music  and 
dancing  and  in  all  the  arts  of  entertaining.  She 
would  be  well  housed  and  richly  dressed  and  might 
some  day  expect  to  make  a  conquest  of  some  one  of 
her  more  eligible  admirers,  and  become  the  concu- 
bine of  a  man  of  rank  and  wealth,  for  this  class  to 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS     127 

women,  the  only  one  that  mingles  freely  with  men, 
would  not  hold  strictly  to  ideas  of  virtue.  The  sons 
of  such  unions,  with  the  fresh  blood  from  their 
mother's  peasant  origin,  often  outclassed  the  sons  of 
their  fathers  by  his  real  wife,  and  became  important 
factors  in  matters  of  state,  though  not  eligible  to  all 
the  honours  possible  to  the  sons  of  wives. 

Eunuchs. — In  the  same  manner  a  poor  man  with 
several  sons  might  give  one  to  the  government  to  be 
made  into  a  eunuch  for  service  in  the  palace.  These 
boys  would  receive  the  best  education  possible  and 
might  hope  in  time  to  exercise  a  very  great  influence 
in  governmental  matters  owing  to  their  proximity  to 
the  ruler.  I  have  had  some  very  good  friends  among 
this  class  of  men  and  always  found  them  faithful  in 
their  friendships,  though  undoubtedly  they  have  at 
times  counselled  acts  that  resulted  in  great  cruelty 
and  hardship  to  the  common  people  from  whom 
they  sprang. 

In  a  land  where  children,  especially  sons,  are 
so  highly  prized  and  where  they  are  so  indulged, 
it  may  seem  strange  that  parents  would  care 
to  part  with  even  a  daughter  and  permit  her  to 
take  up  the  life  of  a  gesang,  much  less  to  consent  to 
the  loss  and  maiming  of  a  son  ;  but  necessity  assists 
their  philosophy  and  when  the  child  has  attained 
affluence  or  power,  the  parents  are  sure  to  be  greatly 
benefited  in  worldly  condition. 

Children The  Korean  children  are  like  the  young 

of  other  lands,  except  that  perhaps  they  are  more 
generally  well  behaved. 


128  THINGS  KOEEAN 

Games. — They  play  games  corresponding  to  the 
toilsome  tasks  of  their  elders.  The  girls  play  at 
sewing  and  keeping  house  and  at  the  dreary  wash- 
ing that  may  soon  become  their  lifelong  toil.  In 
imitation  of  their  fathers  the  boys  bear  miniature  play 
burdens  suspended  on  poles  balanced  on  their 
shoulders.  Lately  the  little  urchins  have  taken  to 
imitating  the  soldiers  drilled  in  foreign  style  and  give 
the  commands  quite  creditably,  even  to  sounding 
the  bugle  calls  on  little  toy  horns.  They  are  fond  of 
swinging  as  are  the  grown  ups,  some  of  the  latter 
being  very  expert  on  great  swings  upon  which  they 
will  perform  with  sometimes  three  men  to  one  swing. 
The  children  pitch  pennies  and  gamble  as  do  their 
elders.  They  even  divide  up  into  rival  companies 
and  play  at  the  stone  fights  for  which  the  country  is 
peculiar. 

Stone  Fights. — These  conflicts  among  the  men 
are  serious  and  merit  a  short  description. 

Two  rival  villages  will  assemble  on  a  frozen  plain 
in  the  early  spring  and  test  their  relative  strength. 
An  advance  guard  with  heads  protected  by  helmets 
of  straw  rope,  and  armed  with  clubs,  will  dash  at 
each  other  across  a  neutral  strip.  Then  the  protect- 
ing rear  forces  rush  down  the  hillside  and  throw 
stones  at  the  opposing  forces.  The  chief  execution 
is  done  with  these  stones,  in  the  throwing  of  which 
the  natives  are  very  skillful.  As  one  side  overpowers 
the  other  and  puts  it  to  flight  a  mad  noisy  battle 
takes  place,  which  causes  the  thousands  of  spectators, 
who  cover  the  adjoining  hillsides,  to  surge  in  panic 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOEEANS     129 

as  they  flee  from  the  rain  of  missiles  sent  by  the 
victorious  and  pursuing  side. 

In  a  real  good  fight  of  this  character  there  are 
usually  a  few  fatalities  and  many  serious  wounds. 
One  man  came  to  me  in  the  early  days,  after  one  of 
these  fights,  with  both  tables  of  the  frontal  bone 
broken  and  the  brain  quite  visible  underneath.  The 
lads  who  play  at  this  game  do  not  resort  to  these 
extreme  measures.  Military  men  who  have  wit- 
nessed these  contests,  seem  to  think  that  a  people  who 
go  to  such  extremes  in  their  sports  should  make 
good  soldiers. 

Kites. — Perhaps  the  finest  sport  of  the  Korean  boy 
is  kite  flying.  Their  kites  are  painted  squares  of 
paper  stretched  over  a  light  bamboo  frame,  with  a 
hole  in  the  centre  of  the  paper.  The  cord  is  wound 
on  a  reel  having  a  long  handle,  which  reel  the  boys 
manipulate  with  great  dexterity,  being  able  to  send 
their  kites  almost  out  of  sight  with  a  little  wind. 
The  great  attraction  in  this  sport  consists  in  sawing  in 
two  the  cord  of  a  rival.  When  the  kite  falls  there  is 
such  excitement  in  the  chase  to  get  it,  that  even  old 
men  catch  the  contagion  and  hobble  off  in  search  of 
the  unlucky  kite, — finders  being  keepers.  Men  in- 
dulge in  this  game  very  generally,  using  large  kites 
with  stout  cord  on  which  has  been  rubbed  a  mixture 
of  rosin  and  powdered  glass  or  fine  sand,  to  aid  in 
sawing  off  the  cord  of  a  rival. 

Bicycle  Experiences. — Korean  youngsters  are 
mischievous  as  well  as  appreciative.  There  is  a  long 
narrow  bridge  east  of  Seoul  where  it  was  my  custom 


130  THINGS  KOEEAN 

to  dismount  and  put  a  little  chap  on  my  wheel  to 
trundle  him  across  the  bridge.  It  took  some  coax- 
ing at  first  to  induce  these  boys  to  trust  themselves 
upon  this  strange  machine,  but  when  one  had  tried 
it  and  had  ridden  proudly  over,  ringing  the  bell  all 
the  way  and  smiling  broadly  through  the  grime  on 
his  happy  face,  there  was  no  more  fear.  A  crowd 
was  always  awaiting  me  after  spying  me  down  the 
road,  and  several  trips  would  have  to  be  made  to 
satisfy  the  more  clamorous.  This  resulted  in  my 
always  having  the  best  of  treatment  in  that  neigh- 
bourhood where  they  would  actually  address  me  as 
"excellency," — the  term  used  to  the  aged  and  to 
officials. 

A  Boys'  Trick. — Having  met  with  such  apprecia- 
tion at  this  place  I  decided  to  secure  the  assistance  of 
some  boys  at  a  spot  not  far  distant,  in  fitting  up  a 
crossing  over  an  ugly  little  ditch  that  compelled  a 
dismount  on  an  otherwise  good  road.  I  gave  them 
some  cash  and  they  brought  tools  with  which  we  im- 
bedded a  flat  stone  in  the  sides  of  the  ditch,  covering 
it  neatly  with  earth  and  making  a  narrow  path  which 
was  ample  for  a  wheel.  Coming  down  the  road  later 
on  my  return  I  congratulated  myself  that  I  would 
not  have  to  dismount,  and  took  the  bridge  at  a  good 
gait.  My  front  wheel  went  through  and  stopped 
while  I  went  on.  The  little  rascals  had  removed  the 
stone  and  put  in  a  bridge  of  twigs  neatly  covered 
with  earth.  I  could  not  see  them  but  I  knew  they 
were  looking  and  were  enjoying  seeing  me  limping 
along  home  with  a  disabled  wheel. 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOREANS     131 

Raising  the  Dead.— The  seriousness  of  life  soon 
claims  the  native  boy.  As  early  as  possible,  village 
and  country  boys  are  obliged  to  go  out  and  forage 
for  fuel.  The  grass  and  pine-needles  are  carefully 
raked  up  and  made  into  bundles  with  straw  rope  by 
the  boys,  who  carry  this  fuel  home  to  be  sold  or  for 
use  in  cooking  the  rice  twice  daily,  which  heat  also 
serves  to  warm  up  the  stone  floors  upon  which  they 
sleep. 

One  spring  day  I  was  out  in  a  pretty  grove  that 
sheltered  a  tomb.  I  was  seated  behind  the  grave  it- 
self, and  hearing  some  boys  beyond  I  turned  to  look 
at  them  as  they  raked  up  the  pine-needles.  My  hat 
was  off,  my  figure  was  concealed  by  the  mound,  and 
all  they  could  see  was  a  bald  head  apparently  pro- 
truding from  the  grave  like  a  skull.  As  they  sud- 
denly saw  this  apparition  they  gave  a  scream  of  hor- 
ror and  fled,  leaving  their  tools,  while  the  smaller 
ones  being  outdistanced,  howled  in  despair  lest  they 
be  caught  by  the  man  rising  from  the  dead. 

Early  Railway  Experiences 
Childlike  People. — The  whole  people  maybe  con- 
sidered as  children,  so  childlike  are  they  in  many 
ways.  With  few  amusements  and  until  recently,  no 
newspapers  ;  with  plenty  of  leisure  and  the  habit  of 
not  doing  to-day  that  which  may  be  put  off  till  to- 
morrow— a  day  that  never  comes,  since  when  it 
arrives  it  is  still  to-day — these  gossipy  and  naturally 
curious  people  are  ever  ready  to  hear  or  see  some 
new  thing. 


132  THINGS  KOEEAN 

In  1884  one  of  our  naval  officers  came  to  Seoul 
from  his  ship  at  Chemulpo,  bringing  with  him  his 
bicycle  which  was  of  the  old  high  wheel  type.  We 
went  through  the  crowded  main  street,  he  on  his 
wheel  and  I  on  a  horse.  As  this  appalling  looking 
object  came  in  sight  the  throngs  of  people  rushed  to 
the  middle  of  the  street  for  a  good  view,  and  as  it 
came  nearer  they  fell  back  in  unfeigned  astonishment 
amounting  to  open-mouthed  alarm,  as  the  strangest 
thing  they  had  ever  seen  glided  through  the  narrow 
passage  left  for  it.  As  the  high  wheel  and  its  rider 
passed  and  was  seen  to  be  harmless  and  simply 
another  of  the  strange  freaks  of  the  newly-arrived 
foreigner,  they  actually  fell  into  each  other's  arms 
with  laughter  following  the  relief  to  their  first  sur- 
prised alarm. 

The  Cars. — The  steam  cars  were  a  source  of  such 
interest  that  a  quiet  crowd  always  collected  at  the 
stations  to  witness  the  coming  and  going  of  the 
trains.  The  engine  was  of  course  the  chief  attraction 
and  the  white-robed,  stolid-looking  group  would 
surge  backward  with  each  toot  of  the  whistle  or  jet 
of  escaping  steam. 

The  attendants  on  these  trains  had  hard  work  to 
keep  the  third-class  passengers  inside  and  seated. 
The  platforms  seemed  to  offer  the  greatest  attraction 
to  them  and  the  fact  that  one  would  occasionally 
drop  off  into  space  in  going  round  a  curve,  seemed 
not  to  affect  the  others,  since  the  next  train  would 
have  an  entirely  new  set  of  passengers. 

They  would  persist  in  jumping  off  as  the  train 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOBEANS     133 

came  to  a  stop  as  though  afraid  they  might  be  carried 
beyond  their  destination.  As  they  would  of  course 
go  straight  out  and  then  fall  when  their  feet  struck 
the  ground,  they  presented  a  ludicrous  appearance 
as,  with  an  air  of  bewilderment  and  injured  dignity, 
they  looked  about  to  see  what  or  who  had  caused 
them  to  fall. 

The  railway  soon  became  a  great  educator.  The 
trains  would  not  wait  even  for  a  noble.  If  one  such 
sent  word  he  was  coming  and  arrived  in  the  after- 
noon for  a  morning  train,  he  would  invariably  find 
it  had  gone  off  and  left  him.  Trains  have  even 
pulled  out  on  schedule  time  with  some  great  yangban 
coming  down  the  street  with  his  chair  men  on  the 
run  and  his  attendants  well  ahead  shouting  "  yahbo, 
yahbo  come  on  yeetso  "  (say  !  say !  wait  a  little),  to 
all  of  which  the  engine  seemed  oblivious. 

So  with  the  electric  cars,  which  also  would  not 
tarry  at  the  demand  of  the  attendants  of  one  of  the 
gentry,  and  even  when  the  great  man  himself  would 
simply  stop  at  the  car  steps  and  give  some  orders  to 
his  menials,  the  impudent  contrivance  was  likely  to 
go  off  and  leave  him  standing  there  in  the  road. 

Street-Car  Accidents. — The  lesson  of  punctuality 
was  not  the  only  one  taught  by  these  modern  meth- 
ods of  transportation.  Passengers  in  time  grew  to 
understand  that  they  must  stay  in  their  places,  though 
this  was  a  hard  lesson  to  learn.  One  day  as  we  were 
riding  near  the  East  Gate  at  full  city  speed,  the  hat 
of  a  coolie  became  loosened  and  blew  off.  Without 
a  moment's  hesitation  the  fellow  jumped  right  out 


134  THINGS  KOEEAN 

after  it,  struck  on  his  feet  first,  and  then  on  his  head, 
where  he  twirled  around  on  his  knot  of  hair,  like  a 
boy's  top,  and  fell  with  his  neck  broken. 

Considering  the  crowded  condition  of  the  streets 
there  were  comparatively  few  casualties  but  when 
such  did  occur  it  usually  meant  prompt  trouble  with 
an  ugly  mob,  the  destruction  of  property,  and  the 
interruption  of  traffic.  One  intelligent  native  magis- 
trate in  rebuking  some  rioters,  explained  to  them 
that  the  cars  would  not  leave  their  tracks  and  chase 
people,  and  the  very  fact  that  a  person  had  been 
struck  by  a  car  showed  that  such  person  was  in  the 
wrong  by  being  on  the  tracks  in  disobedience  of 
regulations. 

Tracks  as  Bedrooms. — One  of  the  strangest  diffi- 
culties the  street  railway  people  experienced  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  native  poor  insisted  upon  using 
the  tracks  as  a  sleeping-place  on  warm  nights. 

The  Asiatics  do  not  use  a  soft  pillow  such  as  we 
employ,  since  that  would  disturb  the  hair,  which  in 
China  and  Korea,  as  in  feminine  Japan,  is  put  up 
with  great  care  and  some  expense,  and  is  expected 
to  last  several  days.  A  hard  frame  of  wood  is  there- 
fore used,  on  which  the  neck  rests.  A  tomato  can 
affords  an  excellent  substitute  for  a  pillow  for  the  poor 
man. 

The  cool  iron  rails,  so  neatly  shaped  in  regulation 
pillow  pattern,  seemed  just  suited  for  use  and  were 
quite  alluring  on  a  hot  night,  so  spreading  their  mats 
on  the  smooth  cinder  tracks  the  people  would  pillow 
their  necks  on  the  rails  in  perfect  position  for  decapi- 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOEEANS     136 

tation,  quite  positive  that  no  car  would  dare  run  over 
them,  since  any  vehicle  ever  before  heard  of  in  Korea 
would  surely  stop  for  a  sleeper  in  the  road,  and  either 
go  around  or  awaken  him.  Perhaps  they  considered 
that  the  last  car  had  gone  by  for  the  night,  if  so  they 
miscalculated,  for  on  several  occasions  a  car  rounded 
a  curve  in  the  dark  and  was  unable  to  stop  before 
intruding  on  a  bedchamber  of  that  character  and 
decapitating  several  sleepers.  Even  in  these  cases 
trouble  would  follow  though  none  but  the  aggrieved 
were  to  blame. 

Large  Cars. — Owing  to  the  fact  that  Americans 
built  the  first  railroad  in  Korea,  the  standard  gauge 
is  used  and  the  cars  are  large  and  heavy  like  our 
own.  This  delights  the  Japanese  who  come  to 
Korea,  and  causes  much  regret  on  their  part  that 
they  have  not  the  same  in  Japan,  instead  of  the  little 
narrow-gauge  ones.  Some  of  the  passenger  cars  in 
Japan,  even  on  such  long  routes  as  from  Tokio  to 
Kobe,  are  like  our  old-fashioned  street-cars;  long 
seats  on  the  sides ;  too  low  for  a  tall  man  to  stand 
up  in  with  comfort ;  windows  that  open  like  the  old 
street-car  windows  and  consequently  most  drafty  on 
the  passengers'  backs,  and  such  continual  rattling  as 
to  cause  one  to  fear  the  early  falling  to  pieces  of  the 
whole  structure. 

Horror  of  Night  Travel  in  Japan. — Of  all  horrible 
railway  experiences  the  night  ride  on  the  government 
railway  between  Kobe  and  Tokio  is  one  of  the  worst. 
In  order  to  get  one  of  the  little  cells  in  the  corridor 
cars,  four  full  first-class  tickets  covering  transporta- 


136  THINGS  KOBEAN 

tion  and  sleeping  car,  must  be  purchased.  Then  the 
little  coffin-shaped  berths,  which  are  but  very  narrow 
shelves,  are  fixed  and  the  upper  one  cannot  be  put 
out  of  the  way.  The  window  is  small,  high,  and  use- 
less for  ventilation.  In  winter  one  will  be  either 
roasted  or  frozen,  while  in  summer  the  place  is  after 
the  style  of  the  black  hole  of  Calcutta.  Electric  fans 
have  now  been  introduced  and  are  guaranteed  to 
bring  on  pneumonia  in  one  night  if  put  into  service, 
for  all  the  bedclothes  are  sewed  up  together  in  a  sort 
of  bag,  preventing  one's  getting  some  light  covering, 
while  the  whole  tick  full  is  heavy  beyond  possibility 
of  use.  This  is  on  the  government  railway ;  there  is 
a  private  road  running  from  Kobe  to  Shimonoseki, 
which  I  am  told  is  a  great  improvement  on  the 
former.  Government  ownership  seems  necessary  in 
a  land  of  so  few  fortunes  and  of  such  poverty  of  the 
masses,  but  in  actual  working  it  leaves  much  to  be 
desired. 

Servants 
One  of  the  chief  compensations  of  life  in  the  Far 
East  is  the  abundance  and  cheapness  of  domestic 
help.  As  house  servants  the  Koreans  are  not  equal 
to  the  Chinese,  who  make  that  calling  a  profession 
and  regularly  learn  the  business,  which  they  transmit 
to  their  sons  in  many  cases,  making  it  a  life-work  and 
acquiring  the  arts  of  fine  cookery  and  of  butler 
service  most  admirably.  A  very  efficient  head  China- 
man in  our  employ  for  many  years,  made  fine  candies 
of  such  excellence,  that  visitors  from  home  could 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOBEANS     137 

hardly  be  persuaded  we  had  not  some  private  way  of 
getting  these  sweets  direct  from  one  of  the  chief  man- 
ufacturers in  America. 

A  Korean  is  apt  to  tire  of  such  steady  duty,  and 
on  getting  proficient  he  will  probably  go  off  and 
start  a  little  shop  for  merchandizing,  only  to  return 
and  relearn  housework  after  he  has  "  eaten  his 
shop." 

Quaint  Mistakes. — Our  ways  differ  so  greatly  from 
their  own  that  native  servants  sometimes  find  it  dif- 
ficult to  comprehend  just  what  is  wanted,  as  was  seen 
by  a  lady  who  wished  to  catch  the  flies  in^her  kitchen 
after  the  screens  had  been  placed  in  the  windows. 
She  gave  the  cook  some  fly  paper  to  use  for  that 
purpose  and  on  going  to  the  kitchen  later  she  found 
he  had  removed  the  screens  and  hung  the  paper  in 
the  windows  so  as  to  catch  more  flies. 

A  Cocktail. — One  of  my  predecessors  at  the  Amer- 
ican Legation  once  had  a  couple  of  callers  at  his  office, 
which  was  some  distance  across  the  grounds  from  his 
living  quarters.  Wishing  three  cocktails  with  which 
to  refresh  his  guests  and  not  caring  to  spare  the  time 
necessary  for  sending  for  his  "  boy  "  to  come  down 
and  get  the  order,  he  simply  wrote  on  a  paper 
"  bring  three  cocktails,"  as  the  servant  had  a  working 
knowledge  of  English.  The  Chinaman  knew  the 
name  of  this  drink  when  spoken,  and  could  compound 
it,  but  he  did  not  recognize  it  when  slowly  spelled 
out  from  a  written  "  Chit "  ;  he  therefore  resorted  to 
his  dictionary,  with  the  result  that  after  much  delay, 
during  which  the  entire  servant  staff  was  out  chasing 


138  THINGS  KOEEAN 

the  fowls  around,  he  came  in  perspiring  and  delivered 
three  tail  feathers  from  a  very  indignant  rooster. 

I  know  this  story  has  been  told  in  other  connec- 
tions and  I  see  no  reason  why  it  may  not  have  ac- 
tually occurred  several  times,  but  I  am  sure  this  par- 
ticular incident  actually  took  place,  though  I  was  not 
present  as  a  witness. 

Marriages  and  Funerals 

Love. — Such  affectionate  demonstrations  of  tender 
sentiments  as  is  approved  of  and  appreciated  by  us, 
in  the  bearing  towards  each  other  of  married  couples 
or  those  about  to  be  married,  would  be  considered  in- 
delicate if  not  shameful  by  an  Asiatic,  if  indulged  in 
by  one  of  his  own  people. 

Love  as  we  understand  it  is  apparently  supposed 
not  to  exist,  or  to  be  carefully  concealed  if  it  does 
exist. 

Marriages  there  are  in  plenty,  but  these  are  ar- 
ranged by  the  elders  and  go-betweens,  with  the  re- 
sult that  spinsters  are  practically  unknown,  and  bach- 
elors are  rarely  met  with. 

Manhood. — When  a  boy  is  betrothed  as  he  must 
be  sooner  or  later,  he  need  no  longer  wear  his  hair 
hanging  down  his  back  like  a  girl,  making  it  difficult 
for  the  stranger  to  distinguish  between  the  sexes. 
His  hair  is  then  put  up  in  the  topknot  of  which  the 
native  is  so  proud,  and  of  which  the  Japanese  are  said 
to  be  trying  to  deprive  them,  thus  repeating  one  of 
their  silly  blunders  of  1894.  With  the  hair  standing 
erect  in  this  proud  knot,  the  lad  is  thereafter  treated 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS     139 

with  respect,  which  increases  as  he  puts  on  more  of 
the  attributes  of  manhood. 

Never  to  have  been  married  deprives  a  man,  how- 
ever old,  of  the  customary  respect  due  a  man.  He 
is  not  a  man  but  a  boy.  He  must  wear  his  hair,  even 
if  it  be  gray  with  age,  hanging  down  his  back  in  a 
braid,  and  even  children  use  low  forms  of  speech  to 
him.  I  have  met  one  or  two  of  these  poor  fellows 
occasionally,  on  the  road,  and  they  seemed  to  feel 
very  lonely  and  friendless ;  possibly  their  early  be- 
trothals may  have  been  broken  by  death,  and  further 
calamities  may  have  prevented  any  renewal,  until  the 
lapse  of  time  and  continued  ill  luck  had  made  it  im- 
possible or  impracticable  to  take  on  this  particular 
manly  attribute,  leaving  them  stranded  as  boys  on 
life's  pathway,  with  the  sad  prospect  of  having  no 
sons  to  keep  their  graves  green. 

Courting. — There  is  none  of  the  courting  such  as 
forms  the  pleasing  prelude  to  marriage  with  us.  All 
the  marriage  arrangements  are  made  by  the  elders 
and  a  go-between.  The  bride  and  groom  only  see 
each  other  when  all  is  completed,  therefore  it  often 
happens  that  a  man  actually  prefers  some  gesang  or 
dancing  girl  (corresponding  to  the  geisha  of  Japan) 
whom  he  has  seen  and  of  whom  he  has  become  en- 
amoured, in  place  of  the  wife  selected  for  him  and 
who  may  not  possess  the  charms  necessary  to  capti- 
vate him.  His  concubine  may  therefore  have  his  real 
affections,  but  her  sons  do  not  take  rank  with  the  sons 
of  his  real  wife.  Thus  there  are  compensations,  in  a 
land  where  a  woman's  proudest  boast  is  that  she  has 


140  THINGS  KOEEAN 

borne  a  son,  and  where  she  becomes  known  from  that 
date  as  the  mother  of  so  and  so,  instead  of  being  a 
creature  without  a  name  known  to  outsiders. 

Betrothal. — During  the  period  of  betrothal  various 
visits  are  exchanged,  but  these  are  between  the  young 
people  and  their  elders  instead  of  between  the  young 
people  themselves.  All  the  while  the  bride's  trousseau 
is  being  prepared  with  great  care,  and  an  expense 
dependent  upon  the  ability  of  the  parents  and  the 
arrangements  of  the  marriage  contract.  On  the  oc- 
casion of  these  visits  the  bride  rides  in  a  carefully 
closed  chair  with  a  leopard  skin  thrown  over  the  top, 
while  the  groom  when  going  upon  such  an  errand  is 
mounted  on  a  gayly-caparisoned  horse.  Each  of 
course  is  attended  by  maids  or  men  in  numbers  cor- 
responding to  their  social  position. 

Marriage. — When  the  final  day  arrives  the  fright- 
ened young  woman  travels  to  the  home  of  her  in- 
tended, into  which  she  is  to  be  absorbed  as  one  of  his 
mother's  inferiors.  She  goes  in  a  chair  ornamented 
with  red  and  covered  with  a  leopard  skin,  preceded 
by  a  procession  of  women  servants,  bareheaded  and 
adorned  with  the  most  wonderful  masses  of  false  hair, 
on  which  rest  red  wrapped  packages  containing  her 
trousseau  and  presents. 

One  of  the  presents  exchanged  is  a  goose,  the  em- 
blem of  conjugal  faithfulness,  since  the  goose  is  re- 
puted to  have  but  one  mate. 

The  ceremonies  consist  in  much  bowing,  the  drink- 
ing of  the  contractual  cup,  some  horse  play  and  chaff- 
ing of  the  groom  and  the  final  unveiling  of  the  bride, 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOEEANS     141 

who  must  feign  much  backwardness  and  diffidence 
towards  the  approaches  of  the  young  man.  The 
bridegroom  will  have  gone  to  the  bride's  house  to 
escort  her  to  the  home  of  his  parents  where  the  cere- 
mony takes  place.  During  all  this  time,  however, 
the  girl,  with  her  face  powdered  quite  white,  will 
have  had  her  eyes  sealed  so  she  may  not  see,  sup- 
posedly. She  may  be  but  a  mere  child,  in  which 
case  marriage  relations  are  not  assumed  until  she  be- 
comes older,  sixteen  being  an  acceptable  age  for  a 
girl  and  about  eighteen  for  a  boy,  but  this  often 
means  a  year  or  two  less  because  of  the  native  man- 
ner of  figuring  the  age  ;  for  instance,  a  child  born  on 
the  last  day  of  the  old  year  would  be  practically  two 
years  old  the  next  day. 

One  of  the  duties  of  our  young  lady  missionaries 
is  to  find  suitable  husbands  for  the  young  girls  in 
their  schools  and  to  stand  in  the  relation  of  parents 
to  them.  Of  course  they  give  to  the  ceremony 
something  of  the  refinement  and  solemnity  that  at- 
taches to  our  own,  and  some  of  their  experiences  are 
very  amusing. 

Pageants. — A  wedding  procession  takes  prece- 
dence over  all  else  on  the  road  and  even  a  common 
man  may  ride  in  the  presence  of  a  great  noble,  if  he  is 
on  his  wedding  journey. 

While  an  official  wedding  procession  is  quite  an 
elaborate  affair  when  the  gentry  or  even  royalty  it- 
self is  concerned,  yet  the  greatest  of  all  spectacles  the 
Korean  might  witness  in  the  old  days  was  when  his 
ruler  made  his  stately  progress  through  and  beyond 


142  THINGS  KOKEAN 

the  city  gates  to  worship  at  the  tombs  of  his  ances- 
tors ;  or  greatest  of  all,  when  he  or  she  was  borne  in 
gorgeous  catafalque  on  scores  of  shoulders,  and  ac- 
companied by  a  monster  procession,  to  the  final  rest- 
ing place  as  described  in  the  chapter  on  a  royal 
funeral. 

Funerals. — Ordinarily  funerals  are  held  at  night 
and  exit  from  the  city  of  Seoul  was  by  one  of  two 
gates  located  on  either  side  of  the  city.  Money  is 
often  spent  on  these  occasions  in  excess  of  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  family.  In  the  case  of  a  person  of 
standing  and  wealth,  there  may  be  months  of  delay 
during  which  the  astrologers  busy  themselves  in  the 
selection  of  a  propitious  date  for  the  interment,  and 
a  suitable  site,  in  case  the  family  site  has  not  already 
been  selected. 

In  such  cases  the  procession  will  be  most  elaborate, 
consisting  of  the  bier,  white  clad  mourners  in  chairs 
covered  with  white,  hired  mourners — male  and  female, 
mounted  and  on  foot,  and  numbers  of  men  bearing 
red  lanterns.  The  mourners  keep  up  a  loud  perfunc- 
tory chant  as  the  procession  wends  its  way  to  the 
gates  and  beyond. 

The  poor  have  to  do  with  much  less  display,  of 
course,  and  their  graves  are  located  as  near  to  the 
city  as  possible  in  order  to  save  the  expense  of  a 
longer  journey ;  some  of  the  bare  hills  about  Seoul  are 
so  dotted  with  the  graves  of  the  poor  as  to  resemble 
the  face  of  a  man  badly  pitted  with  smallpox. 

Graves  and  Haycocks. — We  had  lived  for  some 
time  in  Nanking  with  similar  hillsides  in  full  view, 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOEEANS     143 

all  studded  with  the  little  grassy  mounds  that  marked 
the  last  resting  places  of  many  Chinamen,  when  one 
day  my  wife  remarked  that  she  could  not  understand 
why  those  people  did  not  take  in  their  hay  which  had 
been  in  those  haycocks  ever  since  our  arrival.  She  was 
from  the  country  and  I  disliked  to  explain  to  her  that 
she  was  living  in  a  cemetery,  and  that  those  green 
mounds  represented  the  work  of  another  harvester 
than  the  ones  of  whom  she  was  thinking. 

Homesickness. — An  American  going  to  Asia  to 
live  misses  the  familiar  sights  of  every-day  life.  The 
people  and  the  language  are  of  course  strange  to 
sight  and  hearing.  The  animals  are  even  peculiar. 
In  Japan  the  cats  have  no  tails,  in  China  the  cows 
are  a  sort  of  water  buffalo,  in  Korea  there  were  no 
wheeled  vehicles  except  the  great  clumsy  bull  carts, 
and  freight  was  carried  by  pack.  The  houses  were 
concealed  by  a  wall,  and  when  entered  there  was 
nothing  familiar  about  them.  In  China,  when  the 
temperature  fell  and  the  damp  cold  became  most 
penetrating,  it  used  to  be  positively  depressing  to 
think  that  all  those  masses  of  shivering  men  and 
women  had  no  warm  place  to  go  to,  but  must  simply 
content  themselves  with  crouching  down  in  their 
cheerless  houses  with  all  their  available  supply  of 
clothing  added  to  keep  in  the  body  heat,  since  there 
was  no  other  to  be  had. 

At  Nanking,  we  could  see  in  the  distance,  through 
a  clump  of  trees,  what  looked  like  a  great  red  barn 
such  as  we  were  familiar  with  in  Ohio.  This  was 
absolutely  the  only  familiar  sight  in  the  whole  land- 


144  THINGS  KOEEAN 

scape  and  we  carefully  treasured  the  allusion,  not 
going  near  enough  to  it  to  have  the  agreeable  im- 
pression dispelled,  for  I  knew  it  was  simply  a  huge 
temple  with  plaster  walls  coloured  red.  After  a  time, 
however,  all  becomes  familiar,  and  strange  sights  are 
seldom  noted  except  when  some  newcomer  calls  at- 
tention to  them.  Twenty-five  years  of  such  life 
makes  the  surroundings  of  an  Asiatic  home  as  famil- 
iar and  homelike  as  are  those,  for  the  absence  of 
which  so  many  succumb  to  homesickness  in  the 
early  days  of  their  life  abroad. 

Game 

Our  market  in  Seoul  was  abundant  in  game; 
pheasant,  duck,  geese,  snipe,  hare,  venison  and  fish 
abounding,  with  occasionally  wild  boar  and  the  tur- 
key-like bustard.  The  beautiful  Mongolian  pheasant 
was  about  the  most  common  of  this  game  supply. 

Geese  and  duck  were  formerly  so  abundant  that 
I  have  seen  the  river  fairly  black  with  them,  and 
some  of  our  people  have  killed  four  with  one  shot. 

Goose  Names. — A  colleague  of  mine  had  as 
butler  at  his  legation,  a  Chinaman  who  had  some 
original  names  for  things.  For  instance,  he  dis- 
tinguished between  the  wild  and  tame  goose  by  call- 
ing the  former  the  fly-away  goose,  while  the  latter 
he  spoke  of  as  the  sitty-down  goose.  His  nomen- 
clature was  so  very  expressive  and  quaint  that  my 
friend  forebore  from  correcting  him. 

Tigers. — The  natives  managed  to  kill  quite  a 
number  of  tigers  as  was  shown  by  the  fact  that  skins 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOKEANS     145 

were  formerly  plentiful  and  cheap.  I  once  bought 
as  large  and  fine  a  skin  as  I  have  ever  seen,  for 
ten  dollars  of  our  money,  but  prices  have  risen  so 
now  that  the  same  skin  could  not  be  had  for  ten 
times  that  amount.  These  are  the  same  as  the 
Siberian  tigers  and  the  hair  is  therefore  long  and  the 
markings  excellent.  The  leopard  is  just  as  popular 
with  the  natives  for  its  skin,  which  forms  a  part  of 
the  furniture  of  every  official  who  can  afford  one. 

The  tiger  bones  are  used  as  a  strengthening 
medicine  as  are  the  bones  and  horns  of  the  deer. 

Picturing  a  Tiger. — Some  foreigners  have  been 
drawn  to  Korea  for  the  tiger  shooting.  One  such  I 
assisted  in  his  preparations  and  he  brought  his  skins 
to  show  me.  He  had  very  good  success,  owing  I 
think  largely  to  the  fact  that  he  could  adapt  himself 
to  native  views  and  conform  to  native  customs.  He 
gave  his  hunters  money  for  a  preliminary  sacrifice  to 
the  spirit  of  the  mountains  and  incidentally  for  a 
feast,  since  that  was  the  ultimate  object  of  the  ex- 
penditure. This  resulted  in  inducing  them  to  act 
excellently  as  beaters. 

With  the  assistance  of  these  people  he  one  day 
located  a  great  tigress  near  a  mountain  top  where, 
on  a  place  from  which  the  snow  had  melted,  she  was 
playing  with  her  cub.  Calling  off*  his  beaters  my 
friend  carefully  worked  himself  around  so  he  had  the 
wind  in  a  right  direction  and  then  stalked  up  to  a 
stone,  which  he  afterwards  found  was  but  thirty  feet 
from  the  tigress  that  had  fallen  asleep ;  he  carefully 
photographed  the  animal  first  and  then  shot  her. 


146  THINGS  KOREAN 

A  Woodman's  Dilemma. — A  Russian  naturalist 
was  once  tracking  a  tiger  and  came  upon  the  animal 
one  snowy  morning  just  as  she  was  about  to  spring 
upon  an  unsuspecting  Korean  engaged  in  chopping 
wood.  The  Russian  had  followed  the  beast  by  its 
tracks  in  the  snow  up  a  ridge,  and  as  he  came  to  the 
top  of  the  incline  he  espied  her  across  a  gully  lash- 
ing her  tail  in  preparation  for  the  final  spring  upon 
the  unsuspecting  native.  With  a  well-directed  shot 
he  broke  the  animal's  neck  and  it  rolled  down 
towards  the  terrified  native.  As  the  latter  started  to 
run  he  had  his  first  glimpse  of  a  foreigner  standing 
opposite  with  a  smoking  gun ;  the  poor  fellow  was  so 
overcome  that  he  sat  right  down  in  the  snow  and 
called  upon  the  spirit  of  his  maternal  ancestor  as 
though  fate  had  him  in  its  grip, — a  tiger  on  one  side 
and  an  armed,  uncouth  being  on  the  other. 

A  Close  Call. — The  first  amputation  I  performed 
in  Korea  and  necessarily  the  first  of  all  such  opera- 
tions there,  was  cutting  off  the  arm  of  a  native  who 
had  been  attacked  by  a  tiger.  The  bone  of  the  arm 
had  been  bitten  through  just  above  the  elbow  and 
the  flesh  was  gangrenous.  He  made  a  good 
recovery,  however,  and  was  quite  a  wonder  to  his 
friends.  He  had  escaped  alive  from  a  tiger  and  a 
foreign  doctor,  but  would  have  to  go  to  his  ancestors 
without  his  arm. 

Holiday  Observances 
New  Years. — The   great   Asiatic  holiday   comes 
with  the  new  year  season.     Like  the  Chinese,  and 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOREANS     147 

the  people  of  old  Japan,  the  Koreans  give  them- 
selves up  to  feasting  and  enjoyment  for  some  days 
following  the  advent  of  the  new  year.  Gifts  are 
presented,  especially  to  the  young,  calls  are  ex- 
changed and  much  food  and  wine  are  consumed. 
Every  one  who  can  afford  it  dons  new  clothes  at  this 
season  and  all  possible  labour  is  avoided.  The 
children  look  forward  to  this  holiday  with  the  same 
delightful  anticipation  that  our  own  youngsters  ex- 
perience at  thought  of  Christmas,  and  the  quiet 
streets  of  Korean  towns  are  made  brilliant  at  new 
years  by  the  brightly  coloured  gowns  of  the  children. 
All  debts  are  supposed  to  be  paid  with  the  close  of 
the  old  year  and  great  is  the  scurrying  about  to 
secure  payment  of  obligations  as  the  year  draws  to  a 
close,  though  the  Chinese,  with  their  excellent 
business  habits,  are  more  exacting  in  this  matter 
than  are  the  Koreans. 

Burning  the  Hair  and  Nails. — Another  duty  that 
comes  with  the  end  of  the  year  is  the  destruction  of 
all  combings  of  hair  and  clippings  of  nails.  These 
have  been  carefully  preserved  during  the  year  to- 
gether with  the  hair  shaved  off  from  under  the  top- 
knot, and  at  sundown  of  the  last  day  of  the  old  year, 
these  relics  are  carefully  burned  in  order  that  they 
may  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  some  evil  disposed 
person,  who  might  work  a  spell  upon  the  former  owner 
through  the  use  of  these  remnants  of  his  physical 
make-up.  Passing  along  the  silent  streets  at  sun- 
down of  the  last  day  of  the  last  moon  of  the  dying 
year,  little  fires  may  be  seen  in  front  of  each  house 


148  THINGS  KOEEAN 

where  the  hair  is  being  personally  burned,  as  is  well 
attested  by  the  odour. 

New  Moon On  the  fifteenth  of  the  first  moon 

occurs  the  great  festival  of  the  first  full  moon,  which 
is  heralded  as  it  rises  over  the  surrounding  moun- 
tains, by  numerous  fires  on  the  hillsides  in  honour  of 
its  appearance.  Due  attention  to  this  first  full  moon 
is  supposed  to  insure  the  observer  against  ill  fortune 
during  the  remaining  months  of  the  year,  of  which 
there  may  be  thirteen  in  some  years  when  it  becomes 
necessary  to  add  an  extra  month  to  take  up  the  ac- 
cumulation of  days. 

Thirteenth  Month The  presence  of  this  inter- 
calary moon  sometimes  works  more  or  less  havoc. 
The  people  plow  and  sow,  cut  their  ice  and  lay  in 
their  winter's  fuel,  by  the  phases  of  the  moon,  but 
when  an  extra  moon  in  the  early  part  of  the  year 
throws  their  planting  some  thirty  days  late,  awkward 
results  are  sometimes  experienced  at  harvest  time. 

Walking  the  Bridges. — At  the  time  of  this  first 
full  moon  the  people  come  out  into  the  moonlight 
and  celebrate  the  custom  of  walking  across  the 
bridges,  in  order  that  they  may  be  spared  disease  of 
the  legs  or  feet  during  the  ensuing  year. 

Bad  Luck  Images.— This  is  also  the  night  for 
warding  off  ill  fortune  in  still  another  manner,  which 
is  by  the  ceremonial  transfer  of  any  bad  luck  that 
may  be  hovering  about  before  descending  upon  an 
individual,  to  a  little  straw  image  made  in  human 
shape.  The  man  will  place  cash  where  the  eyes 
should  be  on  the  image  and  then  lay  it  out  on  the 


KOREA  AND  THE  KOREANS     149 

roadside.  Some  poor  outcast  whose  luck  is  so  bad 
that  it  cannot  well  be  made  worse,  will  take  up  the 
image  to  get  the  coin  for  a  drink  of  wine,  and  thus 
the  bad  luck  is  transferred  to  him. 

Annual  Bath. — On  the  third  day  of  the  third 
moon  all  careful  people  take  a  bath  in  order  to  wash 
away  certain  impending  trouble  and  prevent  its  re- 
turn during  the  year. 

Cold  Food  Day.— At  the  end  of  the  third  or  the 
beginning  of  the  fourth  moon  comes  the  festival  of 
"  Hansip  "  or  "  cold  food  day."  On  this  date  no 
fires  are  kindled  and  all  food  must  be  taken  cold,  be- 
cause of  the  belief  that  in  ancient  times,  on  this  day, 
an  aged  Chinaman  upon  whom  official  rank  was 
forced  against  his  will,  committed  suicide  by  burning 
himself  to  death.  That  a  man  should  be  so  self-de- 
nying as  to  refuse  official  position  was  such  a  marked 
act  of  abnegation  as  to  be  thought  worthy  of  per- 
petuation in  legend  and  festival. 

Buddha's  Birthday. — The  birthday  of  Buddha  is 
celebrated  on  the  eighth  of  the  fourth  moon  by  a 
great  display  of  coloured  lanterns  and  fires.  Fur- 
ther, every  house  wherein  a  son  has  been  born  dur- 
ing the  previous  twelvemonth,  displays  enormous 
paper  fish  suspended  from  tall  poles.  The  mouth  of 
the  fish  is  kept  open  by  a  ring,  allowing  the  air  to 
circulate  freely  through  the  image,  which  is  thus 
blown  out  and  distended  as  the  great  highly  coloured 
figure  floats  gracefully  in  the  breeze. 

Swings. — The  fifth  day  of  the  fifth  month  ushers 
in  the  season  of  the  swing.     At  this  time  strong 


150  THINGS  KOEEAN 

swings  are  suspended  from  suitable  trees,  or  if  no 
suitable  tree  is  at  hand,  massive  frames  are  erected 
and  topped  with  boughs.  On  these  swings  several 
men  will  at  times  perform  together.  The  observ- 
ance of  this  custom  is  supposed  to  mitigate  some 
what  the  plague  of  mosquitoes  during  the  ensuing 
summer. 

Advent  of  Rains. — As  in  other  lands  dependent 
upon  the  timely  appearance  of  a  regular  rainy  season, 
the  advent  of  this  vitally  necessary  forerunner  of  the 
harvest  is  appropriately  celebrated.  This  is  at  the 
festival  of  Ching  Yuh  and  Kyain  Oo.  These  were 
mythical  beings  supposed  to  be  attendants  upon  the 
"  King  of  Heaven,"  who  neglected  their  duties  in 
order  to  spend  their  time  together  as  lovers,  for 
which  neglect  they  were  banished  to  opposite  sides 
of  the  heavens  as  stars,  and  only  allowed  to  meet 
once  a  year,  when  on  the  seventh  of  the  seventh 
moon,  they  reach  either  side  of  the  heavenly  river 
(milky  way).  The  friendly  crows  then  make  a 
bridge  over  this  river  and  the  lovers  cross  on  the 
heads  of  the  crows,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  fact  that 
the  crows  are  bald  (moulting)  at  that  time.  The 
almost  immediate  parting  causes  these  lovers  to  dis- 
solve in  tears  which  fall  to  the  earth  as  rain.  If  this 
meeting  fails,  a  drouth  ensues  with  famine  and  star- 
vation.1 

The  native  girls  are  given  presents  of  threaded 
needles  at  this  festival,  as  an  admonition  to  them  to 

1  This  folk  tale,  with  others,  is  elaborated  in  my  "  Korean  Tales  ■ 
and  my  "  Korea— Fact  and  Fancy." 


THREE    MEN    SWINGING 
A  Cure  for  the  Mosquito  Plague 


BULL    LOADS    OF    WOOD    FOR    SALE 


KOEEA  AND  THE  KOBEANS     151 

be  busy  and  industrious  in  attending  to  their  duties 
that  no  such  fate  may  befall  them  as  that  which  befell 
the  neglectful  maid  in  the  heavens. 

Dragons. — Korean  superstitions  surround  almost 
every  act  of  importance.  The  very  cities  are  sur- 
rounded and  protected  by  the  superstition  of  the 
dragon  which  is  outlined  in  the  enclosing  hills  and 
ridges.  Much  difficulty  was  experienced  in  building 
railways  in  China  because  of  this  superstition,  while 
in  Korea  foreigners  have  had  difficulty  in  erecting 
houses  lest  they  disturb  this  sleeping  dragon. 


IX 

A  ROYAL  FUNERAL 

The  Queen  of  Korea,  who  was  given  the  posthu- 
mous title  of  empress,  was  assassinated  by  Japanese 
and  Koreans  on  October  8,  1895.  Her  body  was 
burned  in  order  to  conceal  the  crime  and  only  a 
small  bone  was  recovered.  This  much  of  her  re- 
mains was,  however,  buried  in  state. 

Several  locations  were  selected  for  the  cemetery, 
one  of  which  received  considerable  preliminary  work 
before  it  was  found  that  the  site  was  not  propitious 
from  an  astrological  standpoint. 

A  tract  of  something  over  one  thousand  acres  was 
then  taken,  lying  near  the  walls  of  Seoul  and  in- 
cluding mountain,  hill,  level  rice-field,  village  and 
stream.  All  habitations  were  removed,  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  young  trees  were  set  out  and  large  sums  of 
money  were  spent  in  making  this  a  beautiful  park 
for  the  future. 

In  time  the  interment  took  place.  The  grave  it- 
self surmounted  an  artificial  hill  of  about  forty  or 
fifty  feet  in  height,  which  was  anchored  to  the  natural 
hillside.  The  grave  proper  was  encircled  by  a  carved 
balustrade  of  stone,  while  various  stone  images  stood 
around  and  at  the  sides  of  the  grave  mound.  There 
were  the  tiger  for  protection,  the  sheep  for  sacrifice, 

152 


A  EOYAL  FUNEKAL  153 

the  torch  on  its  pedestal  and  the  snug  looking  priest. 
Before  the  grave  there  was  placed  a  splendid  block 
of  polished  marble  serving  as  a  table  for  sacrificial  of- 
ferings, and  in  front  of  this  came  the  elaborately 
carved  stone  lantern,  similar  to  those  common  in 
Japan,  copies  of  which  are  now  sometimes  seen  in 
fine  gardens  in  America.  All  these  stone  figures,  with 
the  grave  itself,  did  not  crowd  the  ample  summit  of 
the  grassy  artificial  hill. 

Mortuary  Parks. — It  should  be  explained  in  pass- 
ing, that  the  country  surrounding  Korean  cities,  and 
to  a  certain  extent  the  country  generally,  is  made 
beautifully  picturesque  by  these  burial  spots  or  ceme- 
teries. A  clan,  even  of  little  consequence,  will  set 
aside  a  hilly  region  near  their  village  for  their  burial 
ground.  Here  the  trees  are  carefully  preserved  and 
the  grass  is  kept  in  order  by  the  faithful  descendants, 
to  whom  filial  piety  and  reverence  of  ancestors 
amounts  almost  to  a  religion. 

Such  being  the  case  with  the  common  villagers  it 
may  well  be  imagined  what  magnificent  parks  are  to 
be  found  where  the  nobility  have  buried  their  dead. 

The  environs  of  Seoul  are  made  surpassingly  beau- 
tiful, once  you  leave  the  dirty  roads,  by  a  circle 
of  these  quiet  secluded  burial  parks,  each  with  its 
artistic  temple-like  building  for  sacrificial  purposes, 
standing  just  below  the  hill  on  which  rests  the 
tomb  proper.  A  whole  valley  is  selected  for  the 
tomb  of  a  royal  personage  so  that  no  other  grave, 
and  no  habitation,  may  overlook  it  or  disturb  its 
solemn  repose. 


154  THINGS  KOEEAN 

Each  such  reservation  has  a  good  house  for  its 
official  keeper  who  sees  to  the  culture  of  the  shrubs, 
the  care  of  the  trees  and  grass,  and  keeps  the  walks 
and  grounds  in  order.  There  is  always  a  stream 
gurgling  through  such  secluded  valley,  with  artistic 
bridges  of  carved  stone  spanning  it.  Well-kept  paths 
lead  about  under  the  trees  and  through  the  tall  tori, 
or  gate-like  structures,  with  which  travellers  to  Japan 
are  now  familiar. 

We  took  much  of  our  recreation  in  these  quiet, 
restful  parks,  where  the  only  other  intruders  seemed 
to  be  the  bands  of  women  washing  clothes  in  the 
brooks.  One  such  mortuary  valley  was  but  ten 
minutes'  walk  from  the  American  Legation  and  was 
a  place  of  almost  daily  visit  by  my  family  and  myself, 
yet  we  have  taken  with  us  to  this  place,  friends  who 
had  lived  years  within  the  walls  of  Seoul,  yet  had  no 
idea  there  was  such  a  spot  so  accessible.  This  was 
not  unnatural  for  the  horribly  dirty  lane  that  led  to 
it  from  the  crowded  and  filthy  road  outside  the  city, 
might  be  passed  and  repassed  without  its  giving  the 
slightest  hint  of  the  promise  it  held. 

Queen's  Funeral. — To  return  to  the  funeral  of  the 
Queen.  This  took  place  November  21  and  22,  1897. 
Even  had  the  body  been  preserved  entire  there  would 
have  been  a  very  long  interval  between  the  death 
and  the  burial,  the  remains  being  embalmed  after  a 
fashion  and  kept  in  ice,  while  the  court  astrologers 
were  selecting  a  propitious  day  for  the  interment  and 
while  the  preparation  of  the  site  proceeded. 

The    foreign    representatives  were  invited  tP   be. 


A  EOYAL  FUNERAL  155 

present  at  this  burial  and  for  their  reception  a  row  of 
neat  little  houses  had  been  especially  erected,  to- 
gether with  a  dining  hall,  which  latter  was  placed 
in  charge  of  the  keeper  of  the  French  hotel  in 
Seoul. 

The  ceremonies  of  the  interment  took  place  at 
night  and  we  were  expected  to  do  our  sleeping  be- 
tween times.  It  was  chilly  weather  but  each  little 
house  had  its  tiny  stove,  while  beds,  blankets,  chairs 
and  tables,  were  furnished  for  our  convenience. 

Each  minister  had  with  him  such  official  guests  as 
he  had  announced  beforehand  he  would  invite.  A 
number  of  naval  officers  from  one  of  our  ships  at 
Chemulpo  accompanied  me  officially. 

We  went  with  the  great  procession,  being  carried 
in  sedan  chairs  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  four  men 
for  each  chair.  The  procession  proper  was  long 
enough  to  cover  the  whole  five  or  six  miles  of  the 
route  to  the  grave.  It  consisted  of  companies  of 
soldiers,  some  in  modern  equipment,  while  others 
were  clad  in  the  ancient  coats  of  mail  wearing  metal 
helmets  surmounted  by  gay  plumes,  and  carrying 
long  spears  or  bows  and  arrows. 

There  were  great "  flower  horses  "  of  papier-mache ; 
to  be  burned  at  the  tomb,  together  with  similar  gro- 
tesque figures  for  frightening  off  or  propitiating  evil 
spirits.  There  were  two  biers  supported  on  the  shoul- 
ders of  scores  of  bearers  while  great  ropes  extended 
from  the  front  and  back  and  were  manned  by  hun- 
dreds of  men,  who  like  the  bearers  were  dressed  in 
sackcloth. 


156  THINGS  KOEEAN 

The  reason  for  the  presence  of  two  biers  was  in 
order  that  any  evil-disposed  spirit  might  be  confused 
as  to  which  one  to  devote  his  attention  to  and  thus 
each  might  escape,  for  like  other  primitive  people  who 
are  troubled  with  an  active  belief  in  evil  spirits,  the 
Koreansdo  not  credit  theirs  with  a  very  great  amount 
of  intelligence,  judging  from  the  simple  schemes  they 
employ  to  circumvent  them. 

Much  of  the  day  was  spent  in  getting  started  and 
in  making  our  slow  progress  to  the  cemetery.  Soon 
after  our  arrival  we  were  served  with  an  elaborate 
meal,  after  which  we  spent  the  night  in  attending  the 
numerous  ceremonies  with  the  ruler  and  his  court  as 
well  as  in  getting  snatches  of  sleep.  It  was  at  this 
dinner  that  we  received  the  first  news  of  the  German 
seizure  of  Kiaochaou  and  I  fancy  this  had  more  to  do 
in  banishing  sleep  from  our  eyes  than  had  the  quaint 
ceremonies  themselves.  We  returned  to  our  homes 
the  following  afternoon. 

Mourning. — Mourning,  it  may  be  inferred,  is  a 
serious  matter  in  this  erstwhile  hermit  kingdom.  For 
a  parent  the  family  goes  into  mourning  for  a  period 
of  three  years,  during  which  time  the  sons  don  sack- 
cloth and  a  rope  girdle,  sleep  and  live  in  a  straw  hut 
erected  near  their  own  comfortable  dwelling,  and  in- 
dulge in  the  plainest  of  food  with  no  luxuries,  wine 
and  music,  with  their  accompaniments,  being  partic- 
ticularly  prohibited.  Should  the  mourner  be  obliged 
to  venture  out  after  a  time,  he  must  go  clad  in  un- 
bleached white  raiment  wearing  a  hat  of  fine  woven 
material  of  about  the  size  of  an  umbrella,  while  for 


A  EOYAL  FUNEKAL  157 

greater  privacy  he  wears  a  shield  of  sackcloth  before 
his  face. 

For  many  years  the  Catholic  priests  wore  this  cos- 
tume as  a  disguise  while  they  were  being  persecuted 
for  being  in  the  country.  The  dogs  would,  however, 
detect  the  ruse,  and  thus  some  of  these  valiant  pio- 
neers were  apprehended  and  brought  to  grief. 

This  mourning  retirement,  compelling  as  it  does 
the  neglect  of  business,  is  a  grievous  burden  at  times, 
and  causes  such  a  drain  on  the  family  resources  as  to 
quite  impoverish  a  supposedly  well-to-do  estate.  The 
very  poor  are  obliged  to  observe  but  the  symbols  of 
this  grief,  yet  even  to  them  a  death  and  its  conse- 
quent funeral  and  mourning  is  a  serious  thing  for  the 
surviving  family  to  contemplate. 

"White— the  Mourning  Hue. — In  the  case  of  the 
demise  of  a  royal  personage  the  whole  nation  must 
go  into  mourning  for  three  years,  during  which  time 
only  white  garments  may  be  worn,  since  that  is  the 
colour  of  mourning.  The  very  shoes  are  then  of 
white  and  even  the  pipe  stem  must  be  wrapped  in 
white  or  bear  a  bow  of  that  colour.  The  peculiar 
shiny  black  gauze  hats  are  then  exchanged  for  others 
of  unbleached  bamboo  fibre,  or  if  one  is  too  poor  to 
buy  a  new  hat,  white  paper  is  pasted  over  the  black 
one.  Music  and  dancing  are  given  up  and  mourning 
ceremonies  take  their  place,  while  marriages  must  be 
postponed  until  the  strict  period  of  grief  has  passed. 

Life  seems  very  precious  to  a  people  who  strive  so 
to  enforce  upon  their  descendants  the  observance  of 
their  memories,  as  though  reluctant  to  loose  their 


158  THINGS  KOEEAN 

hold  upon  the  scenes  and  instruments  of  their  ac- 
tivity. The  duties  of  filial  piety,  however,  are  so 
deeply  inwrought  into  the  very  natures  of  the  people 
that  the  care  of  the  graves,  and  the  periodical  mourn- 
ing and  offering  of  sacrificial  meats  are  so  strictly  ob- 
served that  one  of  the  common  causes  alleged  in  some 
of  the  trumped-up  charges,  wherein  a  neighbour  or  a 
petty  official  desires  to  trouble  a  native  in  order  to 
extort  money  from  him,  is  that  he  has  neglected  or 
desecrated  the  grave  of  his  ancestors. 

In  short  it  is  a  land  where  the  dead  seem  to  re- 
ceive more  careful  consideration  than  the  living  and 
where  they  occupy  the  most  pleasing  of  all  sites  and 
surroundings. 


X 

A  MISSION  TO  WASHINGTON 

Language,  like  clothes,  does  not  make  a  gentle- 
man. In  other  words  a  gentleman  is  such  regardless 
of  his  nationality,  his  attire,  or  the  language  of  his 
nativity. 

In  1888  I  escorted  a  Korean  minister,  and  his  suite 
of  twelve,  to  Washington,  and  established  them  there 
— the  first  Korean  legation  to  be  established  out  of 
Asia. 

It  was  in  January  that  this  unique  party  burst  upon 
our  capital,  clad  in  delicately  tinted  silk  gowns,  and 
wearing  their  hats  in  the  house.  And  such  hats  ! 
They  were  made  of  glossy  black  horsehair,  silk  and 
bamboo,  with  the  crowns,  shaped  like  truncated 
cones,  rising  from  rims  six  inches  across.  Social 
functions  were  in  full  swing  and  we  went  to  the  more 
important  ones. 

The  De*but. — It  chanced  that  we  made  our  debut 
at  the  house  of  Secretary  Whitney,  and  in  order  to 
render  the  ordeal  less  trying  we  went  early.  General 
Sheridan  had  agreed  to  go  in  with  us  and  give  us 
some  help  in  starting.  He  was  on  hand  when  we  ar- 
rived and  piloted  us  through  the  introductions  and 
escorted  us  to  the  ballroom,  where  the  rest  was  easy, 
for  the  guests  promptly  came  up  and  presented  them- 
selves and  the  ladies  proved  especially  interesting. 

159 


160  THINGS  KOEEAN 

It  seemed  that  some  of  them  thought  it  necessary 
to  say  something  to  identify  themselves.  Several  ex- 
plained the  rank  of  their  husbands, — present  or  late. 
One  elderly  lady  called  especial  attention  to  the 
several  strands  of  large  pearls  encircling  her  some- 
what stout  neck,  and  asked  me  to  explain  to  the 
minister  that  these  pearls  were  all  genuine.  This  ex- 
planation was  somewhat  difficult  to  render  since  I 
had  first  to  make  it  known  that  there  were  false 
pearls  to  be  had  in  our  country. 

The  best  of  all,  however,  was  when  a  beautiful  lady 
with  a  charming  southern  accent,  followed  her  pres- 
entation with  a  cordial  invitation  to  come  to  her 
state  and  make  them  a  visit.  She  told  of  some  of  the 
attractions  of  which  her  people  were  wont  to  boast, 
and  added  that  it  was  further  claimed  that  the  women 
of  her  state  were  particularly  fair  to  look  upon. 

A  Clever  Sally When  I  had  explained  this  to 

the  minis'ter  he  replied  at  once  without  hesitation, 
that  having  seen  the  lady  herself  he  could  well  be- 
lieve that  statement.  This  from  an  Oriental  who  was 
meeting  ladies  in  public  for  the  first  time. 

When  we  had  first  entered  the  salon  and  noticed 
little  groups  of  ladies,  the  minister  remarked  in  an  off- 
hand manner  that  he  supposed  these  were  the 
"  gesang  "  or  dancing  girls.  His  surprise  was  very 
great  when  I  assured  him  they  were  the  wives  and 
daughters  of  our  most  distinguished  citizens,  where- 
upon he  asked  if  it  would  be  proper  for  him  to  look 
at  them. 

Considering   the   tremendous  change  from  quaint 


A  MISSION  TO  WASHINGTON  161 

Korea  with  its  small  and  dimly  lighted  apartments 
where  respectable  women  would  never  be  seen  by 
strangers,  to  this  great  brilliantly  lighted  interior, 
echoing  with  unfamiliar  music  and  with  the  laughter 
of  women  mingling  freely  with  the  men,  it  seemed 
that  this  courtly  old  man  in  his  silken  robes,  proved 
himself  to  be  a  gentle  man  indeed  by  his  dignified 
deportment  under  such  unfamiliar  surroundings. 

D£collete\ — It  was  to  them  a  great  surprise  to  note 
the  costumes  of  our  ladies.  The  decollete  was  es- 
pecially surprising  and  one  of  the  younger  members 
asked  why,  since  the  lady  shivered,  she  did  not  hitch 
up  her  skirts.  Any  one  who  has  seen  a  native  hitch 
up  his  or  her  clothes  when  the  slack  waist  belt  was 
felt  to  be  sagging,  will  appreciate  how  irresistibly 
funny  this  remark  seemed. 

The  Dance. — I  forget  whether  it  was  at  this  func- 
tion or  at  a  later  one  that  they  saw  the  first  dancing. 
It  had  been  something  of  a  disappointment  that  these 
people  had  not  shown  greater  emotion  when  viewing 
for  the  first  time  some  of  our  wonderful  institutions. 
Hongkong,  rising  tier  above  tier,  made  such  a  fine 
display  that  our  cities  were  shorn  of  much  of  the  sur- 
prise I  suppose  awaited  them.  The  little  steam  cars 
of  Japan  secured  the  wonder  that  might  otherwise 
have  been  bestowed  upon  our  great  transcontinental  y 
trains,  but  there  was  no  lack  of  evidence  of  surprised 
emotion  when  these  strangers  saw  their  first  waltz. 
Years  afterwards  when  the  Korean  court  had  a  band 
of  musicians  that  creditably  rendered  Western  music 
under  the  guidance  and    instruction   of  a    German 


162  THINGS  KOEEAN 

teacher,  I  have  asked  foreign  ladies  not  to  dance  at 
palace  functions  because  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
same  was  regarded  by  the  natives. 

The  mention  of  this  apparent  stolidity  or  lack  of 
appreciation  brings  to  mind  one  incident  in  connec- 
tion with  which  there  was  no  such  lack. 

The  Elevator. — Arriving  from  our  ship  we  entered 
the  elevator  at  the  Palace  Hotel  in  San  Francisco. 
It  was  quite  a  little  room  with  divans  along  the  sides. 
Some  of  the  Koreans  had  comfortably  seated  them- 
selves, while  others  were  standing  about  seeming  to 
wonder  why  we  were  all  put  into  so  small  a  room, 
when  the  operator  pulled  his  rope  and  we  began  to 
shoot  skyward.  With  horrified  exclamations,  as  one 
man  they  seized  me,  exclaiming  about  earthquakes 
in  the  greatest  alarm.  After  that,  when  stopping  at 
hotels,  they  insisted  on  having  rooms  low  enough  so 
they  might  dispense  with  the  use  of  elevators.  It 
was  amusing  to  see  them  go  clattering  up  the  stairs 
in  their  sandals,  a  sort  of  foot  gear  not  meant  for 
stair  climbing  and  used  in  a  country  where  the  houses 
are  of  one  story,  without  stairs,  and  where  the  shoes 
are  left  outside  the  door  on  entering  a  house. 

Presentation. — There  were  many  amusing  inci- 
dents connected  with  the  reception  of  this  quaint 
mission,  not  the  least  of  which  occurred  at  the  recep- 
tion given  by  President  Cleveland.  This  was  held  in  a 
room  looking  towards  the  monument.  We  had' 
entered  with  Mr.  Sevelon  Brown  of  the  State  De- 
partment, and  shortly  the  President  came  in  attended 
by  Secretary  Bayard.     The  absence  of  any  uniform 


A  MISSION  TO  WASHINGTON  163 

entirely  misled  the  Koreans  and  the  minister  did  not 
realize  that  the  President  was  actually  before  him, 
but  was  awaiting  the  appearance  of  some  one  gor- 
geously attired.  When  he  realized  his  mistake  and 
was  further  embarrassed  by  not  being  allowed  to 
make  the  three  bows  due  royalty,  with  knees  and 
forehead  on  the  floor,  he  quite  forgot  his  part,  and 
on  taking  out  his  credentials  to  read,  he  missed  the 
key  and  could  not  properly  intone  the  speech.  My 
desire  to  "  laugh  in  meeting  "  was  simply  painful,  but 
the  President  and  Secretary  showed  no  outward  signs 
of  amusement  and  soon  had  their  guests  quite  at  their 
ease. 

It  had  been  no  small  matter  this  getting  established 
in  Washington.  At  that  time  China  was  trying  to 
enforce  an  old  claim  to  suzerainty  over  Korea  and 
she  had  opposed  the  sending  of  this  mission,  one  ob- 
ject of  which  was  to  assert  the  independence  of  the 
country. 

Obstructions — The  then  Chinese  minister  in  Korea 
was  Yuan  Shi  Kai,  the  great  man  of  China  to-day.  .., 
He  attempted  to  prevent  the  departure  of  the  mission 
but  was  embarrassed  by  the  fact  that  a  foreigner  was 
connected  with  it.  Then  the  American  Government 
despatched  the  naval  vessel  Omaha  to  transport  the 
mission  to  Nagasaki,  which  further  complicated 
matters  for  the  Chinese.  As  they  were  steaming 
down  the  bay  the  Omaha  passed  between  the  lines  of 
a  Chinese  fleet  sent  to  intercept  them  and  for  a  time 
they  were  greatly  alarmed  by  the  salutes  until  they 
were  assured  that,  instead  of  being  fired  upon,  Chi-  J 


164  THINGS  KOEEAN 

nese  powder  was  actually  being  burned  in  honour  of 
their  departure. 

Arrived  in  Washington  we  found  that  the  clever 
Chinese  minister  there  had  announced  that  he  would 
introduce  us  as  vassal  envoys.  Being  told  of  this 
announcement  and  that  we  would  have  to  settle  the 
matter  among  ourselves,  with  the  further  assurance 
that  as  vassal  envoys  we  could  not  be  received,  it  be- 
|  came  my  duty  to  defeat  the  demands  as  well  as  the 
persuasions  of  the  Chinese  minister  that  we  consent 
to  be  introduced  by  him.  This  was  eventually  ac- 
complished, though  I  had  to  tender  my  resignation 
as  an  alternative  with  the  prospect  for  the  minister 
of  a  return  to  Korea  in  disgrace  and  unattended. 

Later  when  the  minister  returned  to  his  country  he 
bore  with  him  a  document  in  which  I  took  all  the 
responsibility  for  the  course  pursued,  but  the  Chinese 
minister  in  Seoul  insisted  so  strenuously  upon  pun- 
ishment that  the  returned  minister  was  banished. 
|  That  is  he  went  out  of  the  city  walls  to  his  country 
place  for  the  space  of  three  days ;  thus  the  Chinaman 
4<  saved  his  face  "  and  the  Koreans  secured  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  foreign  legation. 

Adopted  Father. — Afterwards,  for  many  years,  I 
was  associated  with  this  gentle-mannered  ex-minister 
in  his  own  land,  and  learned  to  regard  him  with  great 
respect  and  to  entertain  for  him  a  sincere  affection, 
so  that  in  what  might  be  called  a  half  joke,  I  adopted 
him  as  my  Korean  father.  This  afforded  much 
amusement  to  mutual  friends  in  a  land  where  it  is 
common,  and  a  very  serious  matter,  for  a  man  to 


A  MISSION  TO  WASHINGTON  165 

adopt  a  son,  but  where  the  adoption  of  a  father  would 
rank  akin  to  the  begetting  of  one. 

However,  the  old  gentleman  was  pleased  and  as  it 
was  simply  a  foreign  way  of  looking  at  things  it  was 
accepted.  Western  ways  seem  to  them  so  prover- 
bially reversed  that  I  have  heard  of  Asiatics  who 
actually  believe  that  in  America  the  trees  are  in- 
verted and  the  leaves  grow  under  ground  while  the 
roots  wave  in  the  breeze. 

It  chanced  on  one  occasion  to  fall  to  my  lot  to 
recommend  a  prime  minister,  at  a  time  when  the 
Korean  Government  was  passing  through  one  of 
its  serious  crises.  Of  course  the  ex-minister  was 
named,  and  his  quiet,  firm,  conservative  ways,  served 
to  conduct  the  government  safely  through  that  critical 
period. 

It  may  be  added  that  another  member  of  that 
mission  was  made  prime  minister  by  the  Japanese 
after  they  took  over  Korea  in  1906,  while  two  others 
have  held  very  high  rank  with  their  government. 
In  later  years  the  Korean  Legation  in  Washington 
was  sadly  neglected.  Indifferent  men  secured  ap- 
pointment thereto  and  it  became  of  little  repute. 
But  the  old  minister  was,  and  remained  until  his 
recent  death,  a  remarkable  man.  For  one  thing, 
in  a  land  of  plural  marriages  or  concubinage,  he  had 
but  one  wife.  He  never  took  wine,  and  his  instincts 
were  high.  He  was  intelligent  regarding  great  sub- 
jects and  matters  outside  his  own  land.  It  was 
always  a  pleasure  to  me  to  make  my  occasional 
visits  to  him,  when  we  would  sit  cross-legged  on  little 


166  THINGS  KOBEAN 

cushions  on  the  warm  floor  and  smoke.  He  would 
use  his  long  pipe  reaching  almost  to  the  middle  of 
the  floor  where  it  rested  in  a  polished  copper  tray, 
but  for  me  he  would  always  have  a  cigar,  knowing 
I  disliked  using  a  pipe  lit  by  an  attendant. 

Possibly  this  account  of  one  of  them  may  serve 
to  show  that  there  are  gentle  men  in  Korea  and  that 
a  man  may  be  a  gentleman  in  any  language  as  well 
as  in  any  garb,  however  quaint  the  latter  may  be. 


XI 

MISSIONARY  COMMENTS 

After  a  year's  residence  in  Nanking  and  Shanghai 
as  a  medical  missionary  of  the  Presbyterian  Board, 
I  conceived  a  great  desire  to  go  to  the  newly  opened 
Korea,  and  was  offered  letters  by  prominent  men  in 
Shanghai  that  it  was  thought  would  enable  me  to 
so  establish  myself  among  the  foreign  residents  then 
flocking  to  that  land,  as  to  result  in  building  up  a 
rather  lucrative  practice  there.  In  fact  my  medical 
friends  urged  me  to  abandon  the  mission  work  and 
go  to  Korea  with  the  intention  of  growing  up  with 
the  country.  I  submitted  the  matter  to  the  author- 
ities in  New  York  and  was  instructed  by  them  by 
cable,  to  go  to  Korea  in  their  interest.  It  seemed 
that  they  had  been  for  some  time  anxious  to  locate 
in  Korea  but  missionaries  were  not  then  allowed  in 
that  country,  hence  my  proposition  came  most  op- 
portunely. I  went  immediately  and  remained  for 
three  years  under  the  auspices  of  the  mission,  re- 
signing, with  their  good-will  and  approval,  to  enter 
the  Korean  diplomatic  service. 

The  venture  was  a  success,  for  when  our  minister 
was  asked  if  I  were  a  missionary  he  replied  that  I 
was  physician  to  the  American  Legation,  which  in- 
troduction, if  a  little  misleading,  made  all  smooth 
sailing  until  such  time  as  Western  medical  science 

167 


168  THINGS  KOEEAN 

could  "make  good"  and- secure  a  place  for  itself. 
I  was  soon  made  a  member  of  the  staffs  of  other 
legations  than  our  own,  besides  being  appointed 
physician  to  the  palace,  the  maritime  customs,  and 
the  hospital  organized  in  my  behalf.  In  this  way  I 
was  enabled  to  establish  myself  and  to  receive  and 
assist  the  clerical  missionaries  who  arrived  in  due 
time,  and  to  whom  is  due  the  marvellous  success 
for  which  that  mission  field  is  so  justly  noted  to-day. 

Banner  Mission. — Korea  now  stands  at  the  head 
of  all  such  countries  for  the  success  of  the  missionary 
work  conducted  therein. 

The  people  really  have  no  religion  of  their  own. 
Confucianism  is  merely  a  system  of  morals  without 
God,  and  Buddhism  has  fallen  into  disrepute.  At 
the  same  time  the  natives  are  by  nature  devoutly 
inclined  and  Christianity  naturally  appeals  to  them. 
Then  there  is  no  caste  to  hinder  the  propagation  of 
religious  truths  and  the  organization  of  communions, 
as  in  India,  all  of  which  tends  to  open  wide  the  way 
for  the  work  of  the  missionary. 

Some  Causes. — It  has  often  seemed  to  me  that 
the  Christian  religion  may  owe  some  of  its  popularity 
in  Korea,  to  the  fact  that  it  offers  the  people  an 
opportunity  to  even  up  matters  with  their  official 
class,  for,  as  in  the  Orient  generally,  the  masses  have 
from  ancient  times  been  sorely  oppressed  by  their 
officials,  and  this  religion,  in  making  all  people  equal 
before  the  final  tribunal,  offers  among  other  hopes, 
this  great  one  of  being  able  one  day  to  stand  on  a 
footing  of  equality   before  their  taskmasters.     This 


MISSIONARY  COMMENTS  169 

hypothesis  is  mentioned  in  no  irreverent  spirit,  but 
it  covers  some  deductions  made  from  actual  expe- 
rience and  seems  to  offer  a  not  improbable,  if  partial, 
solution. 

The  Bible. — Then  the  Bible  being  an  Oriental 
book,  its  teachings  are  easy  of  comprehension.  To 
mention  going  outside  the  city  conveys  a  real 
meaning  to  people  living  within  high  city  walls; 
and  sitting  in  the  city  gates  to  administer  judgment, 
is  a  most  natural  occurrence  in  a  land  where  official 
edicts  are  posted  in  the  great  gates  that  pierce  those 
walls,  for  all  passers-by  to  read  and  ponder. 

The  child  at  home  who  reads  of  the  watch-tower 
erected  in  the  vineyard,  naturally  thinks  of  an  im- 
possible structure  of  stone  and  iron,  but  the  Korean 
at  once  sees  a  little  platform  raised  on  four  poles 
and  covered  with  thatch,  where  the  farmers  sit  and 
keep  watch  over  such  crops  as  melons  and  similar 
ready-to-eat  and  stealable  products. 

The  ships,  which  sometimes  puzzle  the  Sunday- 
school  scholars  at  home,  who  are  liable  to  confuse 
them  with  our  great  vessels  of  to-day,  are  to  these 
natives  simply  the  nailless  junks  so  familiar  on  their 
own  waters,  either  entirely  open  or  possessing  a  little 
cabin ;  while  the  miraculous,  whether  in  subduing 
storms,  casting  out  devils  or  restoring  sight  to  the 
blind,  is  what  is  to  be  expected  by  a  people  brought 
up  upon  a  firm  belief  in  supernatural  intervention. 

The  Fifth  Commandment. — With  an  inclination 
towards  religion  there  is  little  to  give  up  in  accepting 
ours,  excepting  some  portion  of  the  so-called  ances- 


170  THINGS  KOREAN 

tral  worship.  This,  however,  has  to  be  handled  with 
some  degree  of  caution  lest  its  abandonment  bring 
about  a  worse  condition  of  affairs,  for  it  has  its  good 
points  as  well  as  some  that  may  be  considered  ob- 
jectionable. What  nation  has  so  well  observed  the 
fifth  commandment,  unknowingly  though  it  may 
have  been,  and  by  honouring  their  fathers  and 
mothers,  have  been  long  in  the  land  given  them,  as 
these  Asiatic  nations,  particularly  the  Chinese,  to 
whom,  as  to  the  Koreans,  filial  piety  is  a  duty  seldom 
neglected  and  respect  is  shown  to  elders  and  the  aged 
as  a  matter  of  course. 

The  War — Prosperous  as  was  the  Korean  mission 
work  before  the  Russo-Japanese  war,  however,  that 
great  conflict  and  its  dire  results  to  Korea,  vastly 
stimulated  missionary  effort  and  increased  its  rewards. 
Since  that  war  the  Koreans  have  seemed  to  have  no 
one  but  the  missionaries  to  whom  they  may  turn  for 
sympathy,  and  incidentally  it  may  be  mentioned,  that 
many  awkward  questions  have  been  put  to  our  people 
regarding  the  conduct  of  our  own  government  in 
turning  a  deaf  ear  to  Korea's  plea  for  the  kindly 
offices  promised  them  in  our  treaty,  to  be  forthcom- 
ing when  just  such  a  difficulty  as  this  should  occur, 
and  in  consideration  of  which  promise  they  consented 
to  the  opening  of  their  country  to  the  ingress  of 
Westerners. 

So  great  has  been  this  turning  to  the  missionaries 
that  it  has  been  difficult  at  times  even  to  examine  the 
numbers  of  applicants  for  baptism  and  reception  into 
the  church. 


MISSIONARY  COMMENTS  171 

Pengyang — The  most  successful  mission  station  in 
Korea  is  that  in  and  about  the  northern  city  Peng- 
yang, where  a  congregation  of  over  two  thousand  is 
the  rule,  even  for  a  prayer-meeting,  while  schools, 
hospitals  and  other  branches  of  missionary  effort  are 
taxed  to  their  utmost  capacity.  Native  preachers 
and  helpers  have  been  educated  and  set  to  work  and 
some  of  them  have  been  instrumental  in  contributing 
largely  to  the  success  of  the  work. 

A  Revival — A  remarkable  revival  recently  swept 
over  the  missions  in  Korea,  starting  apparently  with 
a  sermon  preached  by  a  blind  Korean,  at  Pengyang, 
on  the  text  "  confess  your  sins  one  to  another." 

One  result  of  this  revival  was  a  wholesale  confes- 
sion of  sins  ancient  and  modern,  causing  some  of  the 
confessors  to  suffer  for  crimes  almost  forgotten,  or 
known  only  to  the  one  committing  them.  So  con- 
tagious was  this  upheaval  that  the  very  missionaries 
themselves  began  confessing  petty  lapses  from  the 
strict  ideals  they  had  set  for  themselves,  and  one  ac- 
tually confessed  shortcomings  of  such  a  grave  nature 
that  he  had  to  leave  the  country  and  the  work. 

The  revival  movement  seems  to  have  extended  to 
the  casting  out  of  devils  and  the  miraculous  healing 
of  the  sick,  while  the  contagion  seemed  to  affect  the 
non-Christians,  causing  them  to  repent  of  their  sins 
and  seek  admission  to  the  communion. 

High  Class  Missionaries. — The  missionary  body 
in  Korea  is  made  up  of  a  very  superior  company  of 
men  and  women.  Both  sexes  are  apt  to  be  college 
graduates  while  the  men  are  in  addition  graduates  of 


172  THINGS  KOEEAN 

seminaries  or  medical  schools.  Quite  a  number  have 
shown  marked  scholarship  in  the  study  of  the  lan- 
guage, in  interpretation  and  translation,  and  in  gen- 
eral literature.  Historical  and  descriptive  works  of 
value  have  been  published  by  them,  while  at  least 
one  extended  and  well-received  romance  is  the  result 
of  one  man's  leisure,  and  another  was  a  contributor 
to  some  of  our  best  magazines. 

Practical  Assistance. — The  missionaries  have  as- 
sisted the  natives  to  better  their  condition  by  the  in- 
troduction of  improved  tools  and  agricultural  imple- 
ments, in  the  use  of  which  they  have  instructed  them  ; 
only  to  have  them  revert  to  the  ancient  customs  when 
the  stimulus  of  the  foreigner's  presence  was  re- 
moved, and  jealous  natives  began  to  complain  of  their 
aping  foreign  ways  and  abandoning  the  good  old 
methods  of  their  forefathers. 

The  missionaries  have  instructed  the  people  in 
sanitation  and  hygiene  and  in  the  proper  care  of  in- 
fants, thus  saving  the  lives  of  many  children.  In  ad- 
dition to  medical  aid  actually  rendered,  the  natives 
have  been  taught  the  use  of  quinine,  which  is  now  on 
sale,  together  with  some  simple  household  remedies, 
in  all  parts  of  the  country.  Schools  have  been  opened 
for  the  training  of  nurses,  which  will  be  a  great  boon 
to  the  sick  and  will  cause  a  saving  of  money  to  the 
people  and  a  diminution  of  the  gains  of  the  astrol- 
ogers and  spirit  doctors.  Manual  training-schools 
and  printing-presses  are  in  full  working  order  and 
the  people  are  being  taught  by  the  missionaries  bet- 
ter to  fit  themselves  for  the  more  bitter  contest  for  a 


A    ROYAL    TOMB 
The  Grave  and  Its  Surrounding  Figures 


See  page  153 


See  page  153 
ONE    OF    THE    PRIESTLY    FIGURES  A    STONE    LANTERN 


MISSIONARY  COMMENTS  173 

living,  brought  on  by  the  new  conditions  which  pre- 
vail in  the  country. 

With  their  land  absorbed  by  a  hated  rival,  a  feel- 
ing of  desperation  has  seemed  to  settle  down  upon 
the  Koreans.  Some  take  up  arms  against  the  in- 
truders and  thus  virtually  commit  suicide ;  others  sit 
stolidly  and  deplore  the  passage  of  ancient  abuses, 
for  however  much  they  may  have  deplored  them  at 
the  time  they  were  their  own  and  to  be  tolerated ; 
others  join  the  newcomers  and  make  profit  for  them- 
selves, while  many  others  are  turning  to  Christianity 
as  the  solace  for  their  woes  and  the  only  avenue  that 
offers  hope  to  those  accepting  the  invitation  to  walk 
therein. 

Exceptions. — While  as  a  rule  our  missionaries 
combine  common  sense  with  superior  mental  quali- 
ties, among  so  many  there  must  of  course  be  some 
exceptions.  One  man  lost  his  patience  while  a  guest 
at  a  Buddhist  temple  and  began  smashing  the  little 
plaster  idols  with  his  cane,  so  that  his  fellows  were 
excluded  from  entertainment  at  that  place  for  some 
time.  This  was  a  somewhat  noted  case  at  the  time 
since  the  British  representative  urged  drastic  meas- 
ures in  punishment,  on  the  ground  that  his  govern- 
ment would  never  allow  any  interference  with  the 
native  worship  in  India  and  that  we  owed  it  to  our- 
selves to  take  the  same  course  in  this  newly  opened 
country.  I  did  not  have  to  do  more  than  consult 
with  him  and  with  his  associates,  who  deeply  re- 
gretted his  lapse,  and  get  from  them  jointly  a  promise 
that  nothing  of  the  kind  should  be  allowed  to  occur 


174  THINGS  KOEEAN 

again.  However,  the  man,  not  now  in  Korea,  did 
break  out  again  and  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Emperor 
calling  upon  him  to  repent  of  his  sins  and  asking  to 
be  allowed  to  preach  repentance  to  him.  As  the  let- 
ter was  written  by  an  ignorant  native  scribe  who  used 
terms  that  amounted  to  an  unintentional  insult,  the 
matter  was  referred  to  me  and  again  I  was  obliged  to 
get  a  joint  promise  of  good  behaviour. 

We  had  one  representative  of  a  strange  new  sect, 
who  seemed  to  devote  his  time  to  an  attempt  to 
proselyte  the  converts  of  the  other  missions,  for  his 
chief  teaching  seemed  to  be  against  Sabbath  observ- 
ance ;  an  ordinance  which  was  difficult  enough  to  en- 
force as  it  was,  in  a  land  where  the  people  lived  from 
hand  to  mouth  and  no  wage  meant  no  food  for  that 
day.  The  worst  of  it  was  that  this  man  was  a  highly 
cultured  graduate  of  a  great  English  college  and  was 
altogether  good  and  admirable  but  for  his  queer 
crotchet. 

Denominations. — While  the  Catholic  Mission  of 
Paris  is  the  oldest  and  strongest  body  of  mission 
workers  in  that  country,  with  the  largest  communion, 
the  Presbyterians  are  the  strongest  of  the  Protestant 
missions,  with  the  Methodists  following  close  after 
them.  The  Episcopalians  are  represented  by  the 
Church  of  England  and  with  a  bishop,  and  male  and 
female  orders.  They  also  maintain  hospitals  and 
schools  and  provide  regular  Sunday  services  for  the 
foreigners.  The  Baptists  opened  up  work  in  Korea, 
but  probably  the  native  aversion  to  bathing  may 
have  extended  to  the  rite  of  immersion,  at  any  rate 


MISSIONAEY  COMMENTS  175 

they  soon  left  the  country  and  went  to  Japan,  the 
land  of  the  bath. 

Rich  Missionaries. — Besides  being  well  educated, 
some  of  our  missionaries  in  Korea  are  well  provided 
with  this  world's  goods,  so  that  they  assist  in  the 
support  of  other  missionaries  and  are  therefore  more 
than  self-supporting,  so  that  it  cannot  be  said  in  their 
cases,  that  they  are  there  for  the  sake  of  a  position 
or  for  the  ease  of  the  life  or  the  charm  of  the  sur- 
roundings. 

Sacrifice. — Too  much  emphasis  seems  at  times  to 
be  placed  upon  the  idea  of  the  sacrifice  the  mission- 
ary is  making  in  taking  up  this  life.  It  is  indeed  a 
sacrifice  to  leave  one's  family  and  friends,  but  that  has 
to  be  done  even  when  remaining  in  the  home  land 
and  moving  about  in  following  opportunity's  lead. 
Officials  and  business  men  are  obliged  to  do  the  same 
when  they  go  abroad,  but  the  idea  of  the  tremendous 
sacrifice  does  not  deter  them. 

The  real  sacrifice  comes  when  the  family  must  be 
broken  up  by  sending  the  children  off  to  a  distant 
school,  but  this  is  a  sacrifice  not  at  all  confined  to  the 
missionary  class. 

Comfortable  Surroundings. — Life  in  these  Oriental 
countries  has  many  compensations.  Comfortable 
quarters  are  provided  if  possible  and  a  physician  is 
usually  within  reach,  for  he  is  one  of  the  most  useful 
members  of  the  missionary  community.  In  a  land 
where  servants  may  be  had  for  three  dollars  of  our 
money  per  month,  and  feed  themselves,  it  would  be 
folly  for  the  missionary  or  his  wife  to  devote  their 


176  THINGS  KOKEAN 

valuable  time  to  work  that  a  servant  could  do  better 
at  so  little  cost.  This  tends  to  make  the  life  more 
agreeable,  and  actually  seems  to  offer  an  attraction 
when  mentioned  at  home  in  the  presence  of  house- 
keepers struggling  with  the  ever-present  problem  of 
domestic  assistance. 

Lack  of  Sympathy. — An  elderly  missionary  lady 
once  remarked  to  me  that  she  thought  the  hardest 
thing  she  had  to  contend  with  was  the  lack  of 
sympathy.  She  had  been  a  highly  respected  member 
of  a  large  and  cultured  circle  in  her  home  city, 
where  she  was  surrounded  by  the  usual  luxuries  of 
the  well-to-do,  and  in  coming  to  the  Far  East  she  said 
she  found  she  belonged  to  a  despised  class. 

That  was  putting  the  case  in  rather  strong  terms 
perhaps,  but  still  it  is  a  fact  that  the  general  foreign 
community  does  not  waste  much  sympathy  upon  the 
missionaries  as  a  body. 

Having  belonged  to  both  classes  I  have  given  the 
matter  some  thought  and  it  seems  to  me  the  blame 
for  this  state  of  things  is  not  all  on  one  side. 

The  Foreign  Resident. — The  foreign  community 
in  one  of  the  port  cities  of  the  Far  East  is  made  up 
of  the  same  materials  as  are  our  home  towns.  The 
successful  men  of  business  are  of  the  same  class  of 
men  as  those  who  succeed  at  home.  If  they  are 
men  of  family  they  usually  claim  some  sort  of 
church  connection,  and  they  are  certainly  most 
charitably  inclined  when  a  meritorious  object  is  pre- 
sented. Often,  however,  they  may  have  come  at  an 
early,  unformed  age,  to  this  region  where  the  conven- 


MISSIONAKY  COMMENTS  177 

tions  of  their  former  homes  are  absent ;  where  the 
native  idea  of  morals  is  usually  conspicuous  for  its 
absence,  and  where  it  is  more  than  easy  to  follow 
the  example  of  their  elder  associates  and  contract 
habits  or  connections  which  they  may  manfully 
strive  to  correct  when  time  has  allowed  them  to  get 
their  bearings  and  their  better  judgment  asserts  it- 
self. 

Merit  Counts. — Let  a  gentlemanly  missionary  come 
to  this  community,  possessed  of  some  talent  that 
makes  him  a  desirable  acquisition,  whether  it  be  a 
good  voice  for  singing,  the  ability  to  make  music 
upon  some  instrument,  or  skill  in  some  good  vigorous 
game  of  athletics ;  let  him  even  be  a  good  story- 
teller or  be  simply  endowed  with  good  sense  and 
good  nature,  backed  by  learning,  and  he  will  be  taken 
up  gladly  and  find  real  human  sympathy,  even  if  this 
may  not  extend  to  his  work  for  the  natives  in  just 
the  comprehensive  manner  he  might  wish. 

Further,  such  a  man  may  find  that  an  important 
side  issue  of  his  work  will  likely  be  the  giving  of 
sympathy  to  these  fellow  countrymen,  who  have 
their  own  trials  and  discouragements  in  the  new  land, 
and  in  so  doing  he  may  gradually  win  them  to  the 
ideals  left  behind  with  the  distant  home. 

A  missionary  of  this  description,  and  I  have  known 
such,  who  has  something  to  give  to  the  community 
and  who  is  willing  to  give  it,  will  not  be  ostracized 
or  lack  for  sympathy  and  the  companionship  of  his 
kind.  He  will  on  the  contrary  be  welcomed  and  be 
made  a  part  of  that  little  band,  and  it  will  be  for  him 


178  THINGS  KOEEAN 

to  say  just  how  much  or  how  many  of  the  attentions 
open  to  him  he  shall  or  may  accept. 

There  are  missionary  names  of  good  men,  some  of 
whom  are  now  long  dead,  which  are  revered  in  the 
communities  of  which  they  were  members,  and  to 
whom  more  than  one  prosperous  and  successful 
business  man  of  substance  and  position  in  the  com- 
munity, looks  with  deep  regard  as  to  one  who  had 
given  him  real  help  in  climbing  out  of  the  rut  of 
personal  gain  and  creature  comfort,  or  what  may 
have  passed  for  pleasure. 

Mixed  Marriages. — It  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  while  the  missionary  usually  comes  with  his 
wife  or  has  a  sweetheart  at  home  who  is  coming  to 
him,  quite  willing  to  share  his  pittance,  the  young 
man  whom  business  suddenly  calls  to  these  foreign 
shores,  comes  alone,  with  no  place  in  which  to  spend 
his  leisure  aside  from  the  little  club,  and  with  no 
chance  of  having  money  enough  in  the  visible  future 
to  support  an  expensive  foreign  wife,  while  a  coy  and 
fascinating  native  maid  will  gladly  be  his  home  com- 
panion for  as  long  or  short  a  time  as  he  may  wish. 
Moreover,  as  his  friends  have  in  many  cases  made 
themselves  homes  of  this  character,  it  is  easy  for  him 
to  do  the  same. 

Austerity  Ostracizes. — Now  if  to  one  of  these 
little  settlements  there  comes  a  man  who  conceals 
whatever  knowledge  or  accomplishments  he  may 
have  under  a  general  frown  of  disapproval;  who 
brings  nothing  that  will  add  to  the  pleasure  of  the 
community,  or  who  carefully  guards  any  such  ac- 


MISSIONAEY  COMMENTS  179 

complishment  from  contamination  as  he  clutches  his 
skirts  about  him  to  avoid  contact  with  the,  to  him, 
depraved  members  of  the  community ;  who  preaches, 
and  writes  home,  that  he  is  unable  to  accomplish  any- 
good  because  of  the  awful  example  of  the  drinking 
men  of  his  own  nationality  near  him,  he  will  be 
shunned  and  made  an  object  of  ridicule.  When  this 
begins  to  wear  upon  his  nerves  he  is  apt  to  console 
himself  with  the  thought,  and  to  state  publicly,  that 
he  is  thus  spurned  because  he  is  such  an  example  to 
the  others  and  such  a  reproach  to  them  for  the  lives 
they  lead. 

Poor  misguided  misfit,  what  he  needs  is  a  better 
digestion ;  a  more  wholesome  view  of  life  in  general ; 
more  ability  to  make  himself  agreeable  and  conse- 
quently useful ;  more  charity  for  his  brother  so  he 
may  give  to  him  that  sympathy  he  so  needs,  and  in 
the  giving  gain  for  himself  not  only  sympathy  but 
an  appreciation  that  may  well  lead  the  other  to  strive 
to  mend  the  broken  places  in  his  life,  and  thus  re- 
move the  very  obstacles  of  which  the  missionary  is 
inclined  to  complain. 

Of  course  in  every  community  there  will  be  de- 
praved characters  ;  these  outposts  are  no  exception  to 
the  rule  except  that  there  human  nature  may  assert 
itself  more  openly,  and  the  human  may  be  more  apt 
to  revert  to  the  original. 

New  Material. — It  has  seemed  to  me  that  much 
of  the  disfavour  sometimes  expressed  by  the  foreign 
residents  of  Asiatic  ports  towards  the  missionary 
class,  may  be  due  to  the  unwise  conduct  of  the  new 


180  THINGS  KOEEAN 

missionary,  who  is  usually  fresh  from  some  small 
community  where  he  has  been  the  subject  of  some 
adulation  because  of  the  life  he  has  chosen  for  him- 
self. This  may  have  given  him  an  undue  estimate  of 
his  own  importance.  He  may  be  too  young  or  inex- 
perienced to  feel  that  sense  of  charity  for  those  who 
may  not  agree  with  him,  that  would  seem  to  be  es- 
sential in  one  bent  on  such  a  mission  as  that  en- 
trusted to  him,  all  of  which  may  well  give  him  the 
appearance  of  being  a  bigot,  a  fanatic,  or  a  fool. 

If  the  young  missionary  could  only  suppress  him- 
self until  he  gets  his  halo  adjusted  so  it  will  not  top- 
ple over  and  obscure  his  vision,  he  would  obtain  a 
better  view  of  things  and  might  save  himself  and  his 
associates  some  unpleasantness. 

Fortunately  this  newness  wears  off  in  time  and  a 
feeling  of  charity  and  brotherly  love  sometimes  takes 
the  place  of  what  may  have  seemed  to  be  a  some- 
what marked  belligerency  and  self-assertiveness. 
There  are  names  of  venerable  missionaries,  so  nu- 
merous as  to  need  no  particular  mention,  which  are 
household  words  in  the  communities  in  question; 
the  bearers,  whether  living  or  dead,  are  certainly 
held  in  such  general  esteem  as  to  seem  well  to  merit 
the  decoration  of  a  halo  of  respect  and  affection.  I 
have  often  wondered  if  they,  when  newly  arrived  on 
the  scenes  of  their  life's  labours,  were  as  raw,  inex- 
perienced, and  apt  to  offend  as  are  some  of  the  new 
ones  I  have  seen.  Perhaps  they  were,  and  possibly 
the  constant  arrival  of  the  raw  material  will  continue 
to  preserve  the  old  attitude  of  antagonism  between 


MISSIONAEY  COMMENTS  181 

the  general  body  of  missionaries   and  the   secular 
representatives  of  Western  civilization. 

Above  the  Law. — The  missionary  occupies  a 
unique  position  in  these  so-called  heathen  lands, 
where  he  goes  about  as  he  pleases  and  often  takes  a 
house  and  settles  down  with  his  family  in  some  far 
distant  interior  town,  whereas  his  commercial 
brother  usually  restricts  his  residence  to  a  treaty 
port  or  enters  the  interior  as  the  result  of  some 
special  business  regulation.  The  uniqueness  of  the 
missionary's  position  consists  in  the  fact  that  he  is 
above  the  law  of  the  land  since  his  treaty  grants  him 
extraterritorial,  or  exterritorial,  rights,  which  means 
that  he  is  not  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  courts  of  the 
land  and  can  only  be  proceeded  against  before  his 
own  consular  court.  This  places  great  power  in  his 
hands,  and  an  unwise  or  over-sympathetic  missionary 
is  pretty  sure  to  be  led  into  a  greater  or  less  number 
of  cases  wherein  a  native  desires  to  profit  by  his 
Christian  connection  and  obtain  foreign  protection. 
This  protection  may  result  in  a  serious  wrong  to 
some  other  native  concerned  in  the  matter  but  who 
has  not  such  protection,  and  even  if  the  case  be  a 
meritorious  one  it  is  apt  to  excite  ill  feeling  on  the 
part  of  the  non-Christian  natives.  Moreover,  the 
hope  of  this  sort  of  assistance  sometimes  induces 
people  to  flock  to  the  church.  It  results  in  many 
abuses,  and  some  poorly  explained  cases  of  de- 
struction of  property  in  China  are  supposedly  due  to 
animosity  growing  out  of  certain  impositions  upon 
the  missionaries,  wherein  their  names  and  influence 


182  THINGS  KOEEAN 

have  been  used,  it  may  be  without  their  full  knowl- 
edge, to  promote  the  interests  of  native  Christians, 
real  or  nominal. 

We  had  one  extreme  case  of  this  kind  in  Korea 
wherein  Catholic  and  Protestant  communities  were 
pitted  one  against  the  other,  necessitating  a  long  in- 
vestigation on  the  part  of  the  French  and  American 
Legations  respectively,  and  an  extended  reference  to 
the  central  government.  Fortunately  no  blame  was 
found  to  be  attached  to  our  people  in  this  matter. 

Exterritorial  Rights. — It  would  seem  to  be  unwise 
to  bestow  such  power  as  this  upon  the  whole  mass  of 
missionaries.  A  few  carefully  selected  men  might 
use  it  without  abuse  and  for  the  good  of  all,  but  to 
clothe  men  indiscriminately  with  these  exterritorial 
powers  and  send  them  into  the  interior  away  from 
their  own  authorities,  and  where  they  would  be  sub- 
ject to  no  law,  seems  to  be  a  mistake,  since  some  of 
the  men  will  surely  prove  to  be  weak  either  in 
temper,  judgment,  or  sympathy.  When  trouble 
does  come  of  course  the  native  is  the  one  ultimately 
to  suffer.  Every  time  a  case  of  that  kind  occurred  in 
Korea,  such  as  the  violation  of  the  domicile  of  an 
American  by  the  overzealous  officials  of  some 
interior  town,  it  was  a  foregone  conclusion  that  the 
native  would  have  to  pay  for  the  "  outrage  "  by  being 
obliged  to  grant  new  and  larger  liberties  of  residence 
or  ownership  of  property,  in  violation  of  strict  treaty 
provisions.  Not  that  any  such  incident  was  courted 
for  such  purpose,  but  it  was  the  duty  of  the  repre- 
sentative to  get  the  best  possible  settlement  for  his 


MISSIONARY  COMMENTS  183 

nationals,  consistent  with  justice  and  a  liberal  inter- 
pretation of  the  treaty,  and  the  native  had  usually 
blundered  so  in  the  beginning  as  to  make  it  possible 
to  get  very  considerable  advantages  in  consideration 
of  settlement. 

The  great  privileges  of  residence  and  property 
ownership  now  enjoyed  by  missionaries  in  China, 
came  to  them,  by  virtue  of  "  the  most  favoured 
nation  clause "  of  the  treaties,  as  the  result  of 
demands  enforced  upon  the  Chinese  government  by 
France — as  the  protector  of  the  Catholic  church.  In 
Korea  we  Americans  took  the  initiative  and  emanci- 
pated the  French  who  were  living  in  disguise  when  I 
went  to  the  country,  and  owned  no  property  in  their 
own  names.  Now  they  own  property  in  many  parts 
of  the  country  and  their  cathedral  building  in  Seoul 
dominates  the  whole  city. 

Japan  secured  the  abrogation  of  these,  to  her, 
obnoxious  exterritorial  rights,  and  she  will  now  keep 
such  a  close  supervision  over  affairs  in  Korea  that 
the  enjoyment  of  this  privilege  granted  by  our  treaty 
with  that  country,  will  hereafter  be  of  little  moment. 
English  rule  prevails  in  India,  and  China  and  Turkey 
will  be  the  chief  remaining  countries  where  our 
people  will  exercise  these  rights. 

New  Plans  Possible. — I  know  nothing  personally 
of  Turkey,  but  it  begins  to  look  as  though  China 
might  soon  commence  to  assert  herself  and  demand, 
as  a  counter-claim  to  the  insistence  of  our  people  in 
regard  to  non-immigration,  that  we  either  recall  our 
people  from  her  interior  or   place  them  under  the 


184  THINGS  KOEEAN 

jurisdiction  of  her  officials.  When  that  time  comes, 
as  it  will  sooner  or  later,  it  will  be  well  for  the 
boards  of  missions  to  consider  the  restriction  of  mis- 
sionary residence  to  the  treaty  ports  where  they  may 
have  their  homes,  their  hospitals  and  schools,  with 
seminaries  for  the  education  of  a  native  ministry 
that  shall  do  the  actual  work  among  the  people  of 
the  interior,  under  the  superintendence  of  travelling 
missionaries,  who  should  be  men  who  have  lived 
long  enough  in  the  land  to  know  the  language  and 
something  of  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  people. 
Moreover,  these  men  should  be  men  of  wisdom  and 
discretion,  which  would  necessitate  the  sending  of  the 
younger  members  with  their  elders  for  a  course  of 
training. 

The  devoted  wives  and  helpless  children  would 
then  be  safe  in  time  of  uprising,  and  the  itinerant 
missionary  himself,  being  freed  from  this  incum- 
brance, might  more  often  escape  and  martyrdom  would 
be  less  frequent.  It  does  not  seem,  moreover,  that 
martyrdom  such  as  this  sows  the  seed  of  the  church 
as  persecution  is  supposed  to  do,  for  reports  are  to 
the  effect  that  such  destruction  of  lives  and  property 
usually  causes  a  marked  setback  to  the  mission  work 
in  the  locality  where  such  unfortunate  events  take 
place. 

Litigation. — It  seems  to  be  a  mistake  for  the  mis- 
sionary to  be  too  much  given  to  litigation,  that  is  of 
promptly  taking  his  own  troubles  and  those  of  his 
native  followers,  to  his  consular  or  diplomatic  repre- 
sentative. 


MISSION AEY  COMMENTS  185 

This  tendency  seems  to  have  been  somewhat 
checked  by  the  great  "  Boxer  "  movement  in  China 
and  I  noticed  in  recent  years  in  Korea,  an  evident 
desire  on  the  part  of  our  own  people  to  confine  their 
efforts  more  to  the  spiritual  uplifting  of  the  natives, 
and  an  inclination  to  discourage  the  bringing  of  the 
property  difficulties  of  their  followers  to  the  con- 
sulate. 

Formerly  this  was  not  the  case,  and  one  missionary 
remarked  somewhat  indignantly,  when  it  was  shown 
that  a  gunboat  could  not  be  summoned  in  the  sup- 
port of  what  was  really  a  petty  matter,  "  Well,  what 
is  our  navy  for  if  not  for  the  protection  of  us  mission- 
aries." 

Self-Help There  were  always  some  missionaries 

who  were  able  to  settle  their  own  troubles.  One  case 
in  mind  is  illustrative.  It  was  that  of  a  most  estimable 
lady  of  Seoul,  whose  native  cook  had  been  arrested 
on  Saturday  night  upon  some  foolish  or  trumped-up 
charge.  His  mistress  had  no  intention  of  shielding 
him  from  the  due  consequences  of  any  misdeed,  but 
she  had  many  to  cook  for  and  she  wanted  him  tried, 
and  either  punished  and  freed,  let  out  on  bail,  or  ac- 
quitted. Instead  of  coming  to  me  that  Sunday  morn- 
ing she  went  direct  to  the  governor,  and  when  told 
that  she  could  not  see  him,  she  sat  down  on  the  ve- 
randa and  announced  her  intention  of  waiting  until 
she  did  see  him.  Such  a  remarkable  proceeding  was 
entirely  without  precedent  in  native  law  or  custom 
and  it  soon  brought  the  official  to  the  door.  This 
official  was  rather  clever  and  suggested  that  as  it  was 


186  THINGS  KOEEAN 

Sunday  it  was  not  right  to  force  him  to  work  on  that 
day.  But  the  lady  asked  him  if  he  intended  to  fast 
because  it  was  Sunday,  or  if  he  wished  to  compel  her 
and  her  school  to  fast.  This  was  too  much  for  the 
representative  of  the  law  and,  to  cut  a  long  story 
short,  the  cook  was  at  once  released  unconditionally 
and  allowed  to  go  home  with  his  mistress. 

There  were  some  missionaries  for  whom  it  was  al- 
ways a  pleasure  to  work.  They  only  came  for  as- 
sistance when  they  had  meritorious  cases  well  sup- 
ported by  the  necessary  evidence.  Others  were  in- 
clined to  rush  to  the  legation  or  consulate  on  the 
slightest  pretext  and  their  calls  were  dreaded,  since 
one  never  wished  to  appear  unsympathetic  or  dis- 
obliging. Yet  it  was  most  distressing  to  be  con- 
tinually obliged  to  intrude  some  petty  missionary 
case  of  emergency  into  delicate  negotiations  of  a 
more  or  less  serious  nature,  for  the  native  would 
naturally  be  inclined  to  shift  everything  over  to  the 
minor  matter,  and  thus  influence  for  good  on  large 
matters  would  be  likely  to  be  dissipated,  as  was  often 
the  case. 

Gratitude. — My  missionary  neighbours  were  al- 
most invariably  responsive  and  grateful,  and  through 
their  voluntary  representations  numbers  of  unsolicited 
and  unexpected  letters  of  commendation  were  sent 
by  the  boards  to  the  Department  of  State,  regarding 
its  representative  and  certain  timely  assistance  ren- 
dered. Copies  of  these  reached  me  in  due  time  in 
an  official  manner. 

When  my  time  came  for  leaving  the  country  with 


MISSIONARY  COMMENTS  187 

which  I  had  had  much  to  do  during  twenty-one 
years,  these  good  people  voluntarily  took  it  upon 
themselves  to  endeavour  to  have  me  retained,  which 
made  the  departure  the  more  agreeable,  since  as  I 
had  been  one  of  them  for  three  years,  it  was  pleasing 
to  have  the  assurance  of  those  who  knew  me  best, 
that  in  the  eighteen  subsequent  years  of  official  life 
in  that  land,  I  sufficiently  met  their  approval  to  in- 
duce them  to  strive  to  prevent  my  departure. 


XII 

MEDICAL  NOTES 

As  has  been  elsewhere  explained,  we  arrived  in 
Seoul  a  few  months  before  the  outbreak  of  a  bloody 
entente  wherein  Western  medical  and  surgical  methods 
were  favourably  tested.  The  medical  successes  in 
this  instance  prepared  the  way  for  the  opening  up  of 
missionary  work  proper,  while  it  incidentally  opened 
the  way  to  the  medical  man  for  quite  an  unexpected 
career.  The  recovery  of  the  wounded  prince,  in  ad- 
dition to  furnishing  me  with  a  hospital,  led  to  my 
appointment  as  medical  officer  to  the  royal  court 
where  my  advice  was  naturally  sought  on  matters 
other  than  medical,  all  of  which  resulted  after  a  few 
years,  in  my  abandonment  of  the  medical  work  for  a 
career  which  led  through  the  Korean  service  abroad, 
into  our  own  consular  and  diplomatic  service ;  where 
I  held  all  the  positions  from  deputy  consul  to  consul 
general  in  the  one,  and  from  secretary  of  legation  to 
the  first  ministerial  post  in  the  diplomatic  service. 

A  Hospital. — That  early  success  with  the  promi- 
nent native  prince  caused  the  natives  generally 
to  come  for  treatment  for  all  sorts  of  ills,  real  and 
imagined.  As  a  consequence  I  asked  for,  and  ob- 
tained the  use  of  a  building  in  which  to  see  and  treat 
these  people.     This,  the  first  modern  hospital  for  the 

188 


MEDICAL  NOTES  189 

Koreans,  was  named  by  the  ruler,  Chai  Chung  Won, 
or  house  of  civilized  virtue.  It  had  been  the  home 
of  one  of  the  officials  who  was  assassinated  in  the 
entente  and  some  of  the  rooms  were  blood  stained 
when  we  took  it  over.  The  house  was  put  in  good 
repair  and  the  afflicted  came  in  hundreds,  over  ten 
thousand  being  treated  the  first  year.  In  time  a  bet- 
ter site  was  granted  with  a  more  commodious  build- 
ing, and  long  after  my  connection  with  the  institu- 
tion had  ended  and  the  hospital  had  lost  its  govern- 
ment connection  and  become  purely  a  missionary 
enterprise,  as  was  found  to  be  much  the  best  plan,  a 
fine  brick  building  with  modern  equipment,  on  an 
excellent  site,  was  provided  for  the  very  capable 
physician  in  charge,  through  the  munificence  of  an 
American  gentleman,  Mr.  Severance,  for  whom  the 
hospital  is  named. 

Some  of  the  incidents  that  occurred  in  connection 
with  those  early  days  of  medical  work  are  amusing 
in  retrospect,  though  the  serious  ones  seemed  grave 
enough  at  the  time. 

Chinese  Post-Mortem. — A  year's  residence  in  Nan- 
king and  Shanghai  preceded  our  arrival  in  Korea. 
In  Nanking  a  soldier  from  a  distant  province  was 
placed  at  our  door  to  die  in  order  that  we  should  be 
obliged  to  defray  his  funeral  expenses.  We  took 
him  in  and  made  him  comfortable  though  it  was  too 
late  to  stay  the  ravages  of  pneumonia.  When  he 
died  the  magistrate  was  duly  notified  of  the  circum- 
stances and  to  our  horror  he  proceeded  to  hold  a  sort 
of  inquest.     A  blue  cloth  canopy  was  set  up  in  our 


190  THINGS  KOEEAN 

compound  under  which  the  official  sat  in  state  and 
directed  the  proceedings  of  his  scribes  and  experts. 
The  latter  consisted  of  a  party  of  so-called  doctors 
who  forced  a  silver  tube  down  the  throat  of  the  corpse 
and  tried  to  pour  water  into  the  stomach.  The 
water  of  course  would  not  go  down,  whereupon  the 
examiners  announced  that  the  man  had  been  killed 
by  being  given  cold  water  to  drink.  This  was  a  safe 
verdict,  for  the  natives  knew  of  our  strange  fondness 
for  the  deadly  cold  water.  Long  experience  has 
shown  them  the  danger  that  lurks  in  the  use  of  un- 
boiled water,  hence  they  take  their  drink  hot,  usually 
in  the  form  of  weak  tea,  which  they  find  to  be  quite 
refreshing.  It  was  natural  for  them,  therefore,  to 
show  their  own  wisdom  by  accusing  me  of  having 
given  the  man  this  deadly  cold  water. 

It  began  to  look  decidedly  disagreeable  for  us,  off 
in  that  interior  city  with  but  three  foreign  families  in 
a  population  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  superstitious 
natives.  Further,  I  was  annoyed  at  such  return  for 
my  well-meant  attentions  to  a  suffering  outcast,  and, 
with  the  assistance  of  a  venerable  missionary,  I 
stepped  boldly  up  to  the  bench  of  justice  and  de- 
manded the  immediate  payment  of  forty-five  dollars 
for  my  professional  services. 

This  was  too  much  for  the  equanimity  of  the 
magistrate  who  exclaimed,  "  What,  you  kill  a  man 
and  then  ask  pay  for  it  ?  " 

He  was  so  upset  at  the  audacity,  and  at  the  pros- 
pect of  a  claim  upon  him  where  he  may  have  thought 
he  would  have  the  opportunity  to  squeeze,  that  he 


MEDICAL  NOTES  191 

packed  up  his  paraphernalia  and  left,  to  our  infinite 
relief,  thus  closing  the  incident  once  and  for  all. 

Strychnine  Poisoning. — It  is  not  well  to  expect  too 
much  intelligence  on  the  part  of  an  Oriental  patient 
in  the  matter  of  adhering  to  instructions  relative  to 
dosage  in  taking  foreign  medicine.  I  once  gave  a 
man  a  bottle  of  medicine  containing  nux  vomica, 
with  instructions  to  take  a  marked  dose  three  times 
daily.  Desiring  to  get  well  quickly  and  reasoning 
that  if  one  dose  was  good  twenty  would  be  better, 
he  took  the  whole  at  one  time.  He  had  a  case  of 
strychnine  poisoning  from  which  he  was  rescued 
with  difficulty. 

I  had  another  case  which  I  feared  might  be  strych- 
nine poisoning.  I  had  killed  an  ugly  cur  dog  with 
strychnine  and  the  gate  man  had  buried  him  in  the 
garden,  under  my  instructions.  In  the  night  this 
wretched  man  dug  up  the  dog  and  his  family  cooked 
and  ate  him,  but  they  suffered  no  ill  effects. 

Opium  Poisoning. — Poisoning  by  opium  was  quite 
common  in  Nanking  in  1883.  Having  cured  one 
such  case  by  the  hypodermic  use  of  atropine,  my 
life  was  made  miserable  by  constant  calls  to  other 
such  cases.  These  calls  invariably  came  at  night, 
one  after  the  other,  so  that  sleep  was  quite  out  of  the 
question  until  I  made  a  firm  rule  that  no  calls  would 
be  answered  between  ten  in  the  evening  and  six  in 
the  morning.  It  was  moreover  a  most  thankless 
work.  The  would-be  suicide  had  usually  adopted 
such  course  in  vengeance  so  that  his  or  her  spirit 
might   return  and  torment  an  enemy, — usually  the 


192  THINGS  KOEEAN 

husband  or  wife.  The  patient  on  recovery  would  be- 
rate the  doctor  for  causing  the  loss  of  so  much  valu- 
able opium,  while  the  gratitude  of  the  other  party 
was  a  negligible  factor. 

These  were  anxious  occasions,  passed  amid  the 
most  squalid  surroundings,  and  it  was  a  pleasure  to 
reach  Korea  where  the  curse  of  opium  had  not  yet 
spread. 

Treating  a  Queen. — In  my  capacity  of  court 
physician  I  attended  the  royal  family  in  person,  but 
at  that  time  I  could  not  see  the  queen,  who  in  after 
years  saw  and  conversed  with  me  openly.  When 
she  was  ill  in  those  days,  therefore,  a  eunuch  would 
pass  her  hand  through  a  screen,  carefully  wrapped, 
with  but  an  inch  of  the  wrist  showing  over  the  pulse. 
The  royal  tongue  would  then  be  thrust  through  a 
hole  in  the  screen  for  my  inspection,  for  as  in  China, 
the  physician  is  supposed  to  make  up  his  diagnosis 
from  feeling  the  pulse  in  both  wrists  and  examining 
the  tongue. 

One  day  in  order  to  allay  distressing  insomnia  I 
sent  my  royal  patient  an  opiate.  At  noon  the  next 
day  as  I  was  busy  with  a  hospital  operation,  there 
was  a  great  uproar  outside  and  all  the  common 
people  hurried  out  of  sight  as  a  great  official,  dressed 
in  his  court  robes,  came  strutting  into  the  operating 
room,  stopping  the  work  in  hand.  He  at  once  an- 
nounced that  the  queen  had  taken  my  medicine  and 
gone  to  sleep  and  had  not  yet  awakened.  He  looked 
so  fierce  and  uncompromising  that  my  very  knees 
trembled,  as  I  thought  of  an  opium  idiosyncrasy  and 


MEDICAL  NOTES  193 

my  utter  inability  to  do  anything  for  a  patient  whom 
I  could  not  see  and  to  whom  it  would  be  impossible 
to  administer  a  hypodermic  injection,  since  no  steel 
instrument  might  be  used  on  her  sacred  person, 
which  was  to  be  contaminated  by  the  touch  of  no 
baser  metal  than  gold. 

I  asked  when  she  had  taken  the  medicine  and  was 
told  she  had  taken  it  at  five  o'clock.  This  was  awful 
as  it  was  now  noon  of  the  next  day.  I  thought  of 
my  wife  and  child  alone  in  this  great  city  nearly  two 
miles  from  where  I  was,  but  before  yielding  entirely 
to  the  collapse  which  I  felt  coming  on,  I  chanced  to 
ask  "  Five  o'clock  last  evening  ?  "  and  the  officer  re- 
plied, "  No,  five  this  morning." 

What  a  relief!  I  felt  angry  at  the  fright  he  had 
given  me  and  told  him  in  very  brusque  tones  to  go 
away  and  let  her  sleep  as  she  was  doing  just  as  I 
wished  she  should.  I  hurried  him  out  of  my  way  as 
unceremoniously  as  I  could,  speaking  through  an  in- 
terpreter. He  and  I  remained  good  friends  after  that 
until  he  was  killed  and  dragged  through  the  streets 
by  a  mob. 

It  was  the  rule  in  the  palace,  to  stay  up  all  night 
and  attend  to  the  business  of  the  government,  retir- 
ing towards  dawn.  I  did  not  realize  the  extent  of 
this  custom  at  that  time,  however.  Later  I  was 
asked  for  a  supply  of  that  excellent  medicine  to  be 
kept  on  hand  in  the  palace,  but  unfortunately  I  had 
given  her  the  last  dose,  or  so  it  was  reported. 

Trials  of  a  Court  Doctor The  position  of  court 

physician  in  those  early  days  was  no  sinecure.     There 


194  THINGS  KOEEAN 

was  always  the  alarming  possibility  that  some  serious 
complaint  might  overtake  one  of  the  royal  family,  in 
which  case  a  fatal  termination  would  be  facilitated  by 
the  total  lack  of  proper  nursing,  the  envy  of  the  na- 
tive medical  force  and  the  inability  of  the  foreign 
physician  to  enforce  his  commands.  Such  a  termi- 
nation would  be  fatal  to  all  future  success  while  its 
probable  effect  upon  the  minds  of  the  people,  in- 
flamed by  the  malice  of  the  native  doctors  displaced 
by  the  foreigner,  was  too  awful  to  contemplate. 

Aside  from  these  possibilities,  however,  the  actual- 
ities were  sufficiently  trying  in  themselves.  Lacking 
amusement,  the  foreign  doctor  was  as  much  of  a 
novelty  to  the  court  as  would  be  a  new  toy  to  chil- 
dren. When  no  actual  complaint  was  at  hand  to 
serve  as  an  excuse  for  summoning  the  queer  new 
officer  of  the  court,  one  would  easily  be  imagined, 
the  feeble  young  prince  being  a  fertile  source  of  these 
excuses.  The  difficulty  experienced  from  this  flatter- 
ing interest  in  the  foreign  doctor  lay  in  the  custom 
of  turning  night  into  day  in  the  palace,  where  the 
court  slept  while  I  was  at  work  in  my  hospital.  Then 
in  the  tedium  of  their  waking  hours  at  night  they 
would  think  of  me  which  was  equivalent  to  a  sum- 
mons, for  the  slightest  whim  of  such  despotic  rulers  is 
promptly  carried  out  by  their  servile  courtiers. 

Usually  these  calls  would  reach  me  at  midnight 
or  later  and  as  the  messenger  would  be  accompanied 
by  an  escort  and  a  sedan  chair,  the  uproar  would 
effectually  arouse  my  whole  household.  Further, 
I  would  be  obliged  to  robe  myself  in  full  evening 


MEDICAL  NOTES  195 

dress,  since  that  was  taken  as  our  substitute  for  the 
court  uniform  without  which  native  officials  could 
not  go  before  their  ruler. 

Imagine  getting  up  at  one  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
dressing  in  conventional  evening  dress  and  riding 
miles  across  the  city  in  zero  weather  to  see  a  prince 
who  may  have  fallen  asleep  in  the  meantime  and 
whose  sacred  slumbers  might  not  be  disturbed,  even 
to  relieve  an  ache  from  which  he  may  have  imagined 
he  suffered.  A  long  wait  would  ensue  in  an  ante- 
room where  I  would  be  lavishly  entertained  by  the 
waiting  courtiers  who  would  persist  in  opening 
boxes  of  cigars,  bottles  of  champagne,  jars  of  sweets, 
and  tins  of  cake,  in  spite  of  my  protestations  that 
I  did  not  want  them.  I  soon  learned  that  I  was  a 
great  boon  to  these  tired  officials  who  made  my 
presence  the  excuse  for  ordering  and  consuming 
all  these  attributes  of  civilization,  which  were  so 
highly  appreciated  that  all  remaining  cigars,  sweets 
and  cakes  would  be  carefully  stowed  away  in  their 
ample  sleeves  for  consumption  at  their  homes,  so 
that  on  my  next  visit  an  entirely  new  supply  would 
be  requisitioned  and  promptly  forthcoming  from 
the  apparently  ample  storehouses.  I  must  have 
won  a  reputation  in  those  days  for  possessing  an 
appetite  of  colossal  requirements.  Later,  in  order 
to  keep  themselves  in  countenance,  tea  and  coffee 
were  added  to  these  collations. 

All  this  was  done  in  the  kindest  spirit  imaginable. 
I  was  even  offered  native  office  and  revenues,  but 
as  the  acceptance  involved  the  adoption  of  native 


196  THINGS  KOEEAN 

dress  and  a  certain  conformity  to  native  customs, 
the  honours  were  declined,  though  honourary  decora- 
tions were  conferred  and  accepted  from  time  to  time 
until  I  was  given  the  highest  of  such  honours  possible 
to  be  conferred  on  any  but  a  member  of  one  of  the 
ruling  families  of  the  earth. 

In  view  of  these  nightly  calls  and  the  difficulties 
that  seemed  to  lie  in  wait  for  the  medical  officer  of 
such  a  court,  it  is  not  surprising  that  it  was  a  relief 
to  abandon  this  medical  work  at  palace  and  hospital 
and  enter  upon  a  new  career  by  embarking  with  an 
embassy  for  Washington.  During  all  the  years  I 
spent  in  Korea  after  my  return  from  that  mission, 
the  squeaking  of  a  Korean  gate  at  night  served  to 
instantly  arouse  me  and  bring  on  an  uncomfortable 
sensation,  as  though  I  were  about  to  be  obliged  to 
don  evening  dress  and  dance  attendance  upon  a 
patient  who  either  needed  no  care,  or  who  might 
chance  on  that  particular  occasion  to  need  attention 
beyond  my  power  to  bestow. 

Ginseng. — The  main  reliance  of  the  Korean 
pharmacopoeia  is  upon  the  root  known  as  ginseng. 
This  is  the  panacea  for  all  native  ills  where  a  "  heat- 
ing" medicine  is  required.  The  country  is  noted 
for  the  excellence  of  its  ginseng  which  was  one  of 
the  royal  perquisites  prior  to  the  recent  Japanese 
occupation,  the  sale  of  the  crop  usually  bringing  to 
the  royal  purse  over  a  half  million  dollars  in  our 
money  each  year. 

This  plant  resembles  somewhat  our  May-apple 
or   mandrake,   and   is   cultivated   under   mat  sheds 


MEDICAL  NOTES  197 

for  its  root  which  requires  seven  years  to  mature. 
Wild  roots  are  prized  above  the  cultivated  ones; 
genuine  wild  roots  are  said  to  have  sold  for  their 
actual  weight  in  gold. 

Instead  of  being  the  inert  drug  we  find  it  with 
us,  Korean  ginseng  certainly  merits  its  reputed 
"heating"  qualities.  I  have  seen  foreigners  and 
natives  with  quite  an  eruption  produced  by  its  use. 
With  the  Chinese  the  great  merit  of  the  root  seems 
to  be  for  use  as  an  aphrodisiac. 

When  treating  the  prince,  I  was  greatly  concerned 
on  one  occasion  by  noticing  that  his  wounds  had 
taken  on  an  inflamed  appearance  with  a  rise  of 
temperature,  for  which  I  could  in  no  way  account. 
At  last,  after  much  questioning,  I  learned  that  his 
family,  hoping  to  hasten  his  recovery,  had  been 
surreptitiously  administering  ginseng  to  him,  where- 
upon I  announced  that  unless  I  was  to  be  obeyed 
implicitly  I  would  leave  the  case  entirely,  which 
made  such  an  impression  on  them  that  I  had  my 
way  "thereafter.  The  bad  symptoms  soon  disappeared 
leaving  me  with  more  respect  for  ginseng  than  I  had 
before  entertained. 

A  Quaint  Interpretation. — Interpreters  were  scarce 
in  Korea  at  that  time  and  I  had  one  of  the  few  to 
assist  me  in  this  case  and  later  in  the  hospital.  He 
would  indicate  a  decrease  in  temperature  by  the 
pleasing  statement  that  the  fever  was  "  increasing  to 
less." 

Dog  Soup. — One  of  the  strange  customs  dis- 
covered in  attending  this  case  was  the  use  of  soup 


198  THINGS  KOEEAN 

made  from  the  heads  of  dogs,  as  a  strengthening 
medicine  or  food.  This  may  have  been  harmless 
enough  but  it  was  repulsive  so  I  took  a  roundabout 
way  to  stop  its  use.  I  announced  one  morning  that 
my  patient  had  a  unique  manner  of  getting  even 
with  his  enemies,  since  he  ate  them.  Being  asked 
for  an  explanation  I  said  that  I  had  seen  the  dogs 
devouring  the  dead  Japanese  lying  in  the  streets  and 
as  he  ate  the  dogs,  he  thus  fed  on  his  enemies. 
After  that  beef  was  used  for  soup  ;  and  to  our  in- 
tense relief,  the  bodies  of  those  Japanese  killed  in  the 
recent  emeute  were  removed  from  the  streets  and 
buried. 

A  Dog  Poultice. — Among  the  wounded  at  the 
Chinese  camp,  I  found  a  colonel  who  had  been  shot 
through  the  groin  ;  the  bullet  had  passed  through  a 
natural  opening  in  the  pelvic  bone  without  splinter- 
ing the  latter,  and  when  I  saw  the  officer  he  had  the 
skin  of  a  freshly  killed  dog  wrapped  around  the 
wound  as  a  poultice.  It  seemed  to  have  served  well 
enough,  being  fresh  and  warm.  As  an  illustration 
of  the  excellence  of  the  Chinese  as  surgical  patients, 
it  may  be  mentioned  that  this  man  was  well  enough 
to  ride  his  horse  within  ninety  days  after  being 
wounded. 

Terra  Firma. — Medicines  were  very  scarce  and 
costly  in  Korea  at  that  time.  Quinine  was  seven 
Mexican  dollars  an  ounce  in  Shanghai  and  iodoform 
was  so  expensive  that  I  only  had  one  ounce  of  it. 
Being  at  my  wits'  ends  for  drugs  for  all  the  wounded 
and  sick  people,  I  remembered  having  read  in  an  old 


MEDICAL  NOTES  199 

London  Lancet  of  about  1858,  how  a  British  surgeon 
in  Africa,  similarly  situated,  had  used  clay  success- 
fully as  a  surgical  dressing.  My  household  was 
therefore  put  to  baking  clay  on  the  hot  kang  floors, 
and  this  was  used  to  good  advantage,  as  it  absorbed 
the  pus  and  was  easily  cleaned  off  for  a  fresh  applica- 
tion. This  preparation  was  much  used  in  the 
hospital  until  something  better  could  be  had.  It 
was  labelled  "  terra  firma  "  in  order  that  the  inter- 
preter might  not  understand  that  it  was  simply 
Korean  dirt  that  was  working  such  cures. 

I  understand  that  the  much  used  American 
remedy  which  is  quite  popular  under  the  name  of 
antiphlogistine,  is  simply  this  same  old  "  terra  firma  " 
with  some  drugs  added. 

Chinese  Wounds. — Some  of  the  Chinese  soldiers 
had  horrible  wounds  made  by  the  ancient  saw- 
toothed  bayonets  carried  by  the  Japanese  troops  at 
that  time.  They  were  excellent  patients,  however, 
even  recovering  from  stabs  in  the  abdomen. 

One  man  had  a  bayonet  thrust  through  his  neck, 
laying  bare  the  important  blood  vessels  and  just  miss- 
ing the  vertebra ;  when  the  bayonet  was  withdrawn 
it  took  that  side  of  the  neck  away.  The  man  re- 
covered, however,  and  was  for  years  afterwards  the 
gate  man  at  the  Chinese  Legation  in  Seoul,  where  he 
never  failed  to  give  me  a  cordial,  if  stiff-necked,  greet- 
ing when  in  later  years  I  passed  his  gate  lodge  as  a 
colleague  of  his  master. 

One  man  died  of  tetanus  because  I  was  not 
allowed   to  amputate  his  badly   mangled   forearm. 


200  THINGS  KOEEAN 

The  Chinese  general  would  not  hear  to  the  operation 
on  the  grounds  that  a  one-armed  soldier  would  be 
useless,  and  a  man  had  better  die  than  suffer  such  a 
crippling.  He  had  tetanus  as  predicted  and  died 
from  it  as  it  was  said  he  would  ;  the  others  recovered. 
As  Ambrose  Pare,  the  famous  barber  surgeon  and 
father  of  modern  surgery,  would  say  in  his  quaint 
manner,  "  I  dressed  them  and  God  cured  them,"  for 
of  medicine  I  had  almost  none  before  I  got  through 
with  them. 

Rice  Diet. — This  success  must  be  ascribed  largely 
to  the  fact  that  the  Chinese  are  such  good  surgical 
patients,  which  in  turn  is  due  in  all  probability  to 
their  non-stimulating  rice  diet. 

Some  of  our  high  medical  authorities,  noticing 
such  good  results  among  the  wounded  Japanese  in 
the  recent  war  with  Russia,  have  attributed  these 
results  to  the  diet  of  rice,  and  have  even  advocated  a 
ration  of  that  character  for  our  own  troops.  They 
probably  have  never  tried  sustaining  themselves  on 
rice,  and  may  therefore  not  have  proved  the  truth  of 
the  maxim  that  "  rice  will  not  stick  to  the  white 
man's  ribs." 

Being  brought  up  on  rice  from  infancy  and  from  a 
parentage  nourished  in  the  same  manner,  these 
people  thrive  upon  it,  while  we  cannot  hold  and 
assimilate  enough  rice  to  sustain  us. 

I  remember  that  after  being  up  all  night  with  the 
wounded  soldiers  at  the  Chinese  camp,  following  a 
day  of  such  strenuous  work  that  there  was  little  time 
or  opportunity  to  eat,  I  was  invited  to  breakfast  with 


MEDICAL  NOTES  201 

General  Yuan  Shi  Kai,  and  my  hunger  was  so  great 
that  it  seemed  I  could  eat  anything. 

When  I  saw  simply  three  bowls  of  rice  apiece  on 
the  table,  great  was  my  disappointment,  for  I  felt 
quite  sure  I  could  eat  the  whole  six  and  then  not  be 
content.  We  began  and  before  I  had  finished  one 
bowl  of  the  dry,  tasteless  stuff,  with  no  sugar,  butter, 
milk  or  other  dressing  to  go  with  it,  I  seemed  to  be 
filled  right  up  to  my  throat  and  could  eat  no  more, 
whereupon  my  host  took  my  two  remaining  bowls 
and  emptied  them  in  addition  to  the  three  he  had 
already  eaten. 

Any  one  who  has  travelled  in  Asia  in  warm 
weather  and  has  noted  the  tremendously  distended 
abdomens  of  the  naked  children,  will  be  able  to  un- 
derstand that  something  is  necessary  in  the  matter  of 
physical  education  before  we  are  able  to  contain 
enough  rice  to  satisfy  hunger.  Our  small  stomachs, 
accustomed  to  a  concentrated  food,  simply  will  not 
hold  enough  of  this  bulky  material,  and  much  as  I 
like  a  rice  and  curry,  I  could  not  put  away  enough 
rice  that  morning  to  satisfy  the  pangs  of  hunger. 
Our  whole  army  would  desert  en  masse  if  our  men  were 
put  upon  any  such  uncustomary  and  impossible  diet. 

Teeth. — A  rice  diet  seems  favourable  to  the 
growth  of  teeth.  The  Koreans  seem  almost 
invariably  to  have  fine  pearly  white  teeth.  They 
brush  them  carefully  in  the  mornings,  using  salt  as  a 
cleanser  and  rubbing  it  on  with  the  fingers  instead 
of  a  brush.  Coming  out  of  their  foul  little  sleeping- 
rooms  with  something  worse  than  a  "  pale  brown 


202  THINGS  KOKEAN 

taste  "  in  the  morning,  the  salt  is  most  refreshing  to 
them. 

However,  they  do  have  decayed  teeth  as  I  soon 
found,  somewhat  to  my  regret.  I  had  tried  to  learn 
to  pull  teeth  while  at  medical  school,  but  about  the 
only  advice  I  could  get  was  to  select  the  proper 
forceps,  get  a  good  deep  hold,  give  a  twist,  and  "  pull 
for  dear  life." 

One  day  a  man  came  in  complaining  of  a  severe 
toothache  and  to  get  rid  of  him  I  suggested  pulling 
the  tooth,  since  I  had  found  that  any  such  suggestion 
caused  the  patient  to  leave  at  once.  To  my  surprise 
this  man  consented  promptly.  Carrying  out  my  in- 
structions to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I  drew  two  teeth 
at  one  time  and  was  most  depressed  by  the  occur- 
rence. Later  I  saw  the  man  returning  before  I 
could  finish  up  my  clinic  and  it  seemed  I  was  in  for 
a  severe  tongue-lashing  over  taking  out  his  good 
tooth  with  the  bad  one.  That  was  not  the  case, 
however ;  he  was  bringing  his  wife  for  me  to  extract 
some  teeth  for  her  since  he  said  no  Korean  was  ever 
known  to  take  out  two  teeth  at  one  time  and  with  so 
little  pain.  Thereafter  I  had  to  pull  teeth  so  much 
that  I  grew  to  rather  like  it. 

Cautery  and  Acupuncture. — The  Korean  system 
of  medicine  is  essentially  that  of  China,  from  which 
country  it  was  borrowed. 

The  actual  cautery  is  so  frequently  used  that  I 
have  never  seen  a  Korean  stripped  who  did  not  have 
the  round  scars  left  from  the  application  of  hot  cash 
for  the  cure  of  some  pain. 


MEDICAL  NOTES  203 

Acupuncture  is  used  just  as  often,  and  dirty 
needles  are  sometimes  the  means  of  inducing  a  more 
serious  disease  than  that  for  the  cure  of  which  they 
were  used. 

I  once  knew  of  a  very  sad  case  resulting  from  the 
use  of  the  chirn  or  needle.  It  was  in  the  family  of 
an  old  official  to  whom  I  was  greatly  attached.  His 
only  son  was  the  last  male  of  seven  generations ;  he 
was  a  handsome,  strong  young  man  of  about  twenty- 
one  years.  One  day  he  complained  of  a  headache 
at  the  back  of  his  head  and  a  friend  who  was  with 
him  proposed  giving  him  a  needle;  for  all  educated 
Koreans  seem  to  think  they  can  practice  medicine, 
in  a  land  where  the  native  doctor  is  not  highly 
esteemed. 

The  boy's  mother  was  behind  the  screen  and  urged 
him  to  take  the  needle  and  get  relief  from  his  pain. 
He  consented  and  his  friend  boldly  plunged  the 
needle  into  the  back  of  the  sufferer's  neck,  accidentally 
piercing  the  medulla  so  that  the  young  man  fell  down 
frothing  at  the  mouth  and  died.  His  mother  died  of 
a  broken  heart  within  a  few  hours,  and  my  poor  old 
friend  was  bereft  of  his  son  and  his  only  wife ;  for  he 
was  one  of  the  few  natives  of  my  acquaintance  who 
had  taken  but  one  wife. 

Sorcerers. — Koreans  believe  that  some  diseases, 
such  as  smallpox,  are  caused  by  evil  spirits,  and  the 
exorcising  of  these  demons  is  a  regular  business,  fol- 
lowed by  blind  men  and  a  class  of  women  known  as 
mootang. 

A  great  offering  of  food  and  cash  is  made  and 


204  THINGS  KOEEAN 

these  people,  one  or  more  performers,  assemble  and 
go  through  their  incantations,  consisting  of  weird 
dancing  and  chanting,  accompanied  by  the  pounding 
of  cymbals  and  drums.  Sometimes  these  incantations 
are  performed  at  the  bedside  of  the  poor  patient, 
while  at  other  times  the  ceremony  is  gone  through 
at  the  little  temple  of  the  mootang  in  the  near-by 
hills — a  sort  of  absent  treatment. 

Frequently  when  I  have  been  out  on  professional 
duties  at  night  and  have  heard,  off  the  quiet  streets, 
this  beating  of  tom-toms  in  a  distant  house,  knowing 
the  case  to  be  one  not  affected  by  drugs,  I  have  re- 
joiced in  this  belief  in  spirits  which  prevented  the  na- 
tives from  calling  on  me  for  aid,  and  I  have  wished 
my  fellow  practitioner  well  in  his  or  her  incantations. 

Smallpox. — In  a  land  where  inoculation  was 
regularly  performed,  vaccination  made  rapid  strides, 
and  I  congratulate  myself  upon  the  good  done  in  the 
introduction  of  vaccination  and  quinine — for  Korea 
is  a  land  terribly  afflicted  with  mosquitoes  and  malaria. 

Inoculation  with  smallpox  virus  was  practiced  on 
the  theory  that  since  a  child  must  have  smallpox 
sooner  or  later,  it  was  better  for  him  to  have  it  early, 
before  time  and  trouble  had  been  wasted  on  his 
rearing. 

So  common  is  the  disease  that  few  Koreans  seem 
to  have  entirely  missed  some  pitting,  while  many 
faces  are  horribly  scarred  by  the  marks  of  the  dis- 
ease. 

An  Artist's  Death.— In  the  early  spring  of  1886, 
an  artist  from  San  Francisco  came  to  Seoul  on  a 


MEDICAL  NOTES  205 

professional  quest.  I  chanced  to  meet  him  one  day 
when  on  a  vaccinating  tour  among  the  few  foreigners 
then  residing  there.  He  declined  to  allow  me  to 
vaccinate  him  and  delivered  quite  a  lecture  to  me 
upon  what  he  considered  this  barbarous  custom. 

He  took  part  of  a  Korean  house  and  did  not  know 
that  in  the  room  next  to  him,  separated  by  a  paper 
partition,  lay  a  child  suffering  with  smallpox.  A 
few  days  after  he  had  lectured  me  I  was  called  to  his 
bedside  and  found  him  down  with  the  disease,  which 
assumed  its  worst  form  and  at  his  advanced  age  left 
him  little  chance  of  life.  He  died  a  martyr  to  his 
theories. 

I  mention  this  since  a  recent  number  of  a  San 
Francisco  journal  contained  quite  an  account  of  this 
amiable  man  and  his  sad  end. 

Doctors'  Fees. — The  Koreans  seem  to  go  on  the 
principle  of  no  cure  no  pay.  Payment  moreover 
seems  seldom  to  be  in  money.  I  have  been  given 
hundreds  of  eggs,  quantities  of  meat,  live  pigs,  chick- 
ens, pheasant,  and  all  manner  of  eatables,  by  grateful 
patients. 

In  order  to  prevent  curiosity  seekers  from  taking 
up  valuable  time  at  the  hospital  and  to  give  the  pa- 
tients a  sense  of  appreciation  of  what  was  being  done 
for  them,  we  adopted  the  custom  of  exacting  a  small 
fee  from  each  one.  This  did  not  seem  to  be  a  wise 
policy  since  the  people,  having  paid  actual  money, 
however  small  the  amount,  considered  that  they  had 
conferred  the  favour  rather  than  that  we  had  placed 
them  under  a  debt  of  gratitude. 


206  THINGS  KOEEAN 

Faith. — It  so  happened  that  such  cases  as  were 
necessarily  fatal  proved  so  before  I  became  engaged 
with  them,  while  those  to  which  I  was  called  in  time 
were  of  the  kind  destined  to  recover,  and  recover 
they  did.  This  was  undoubtedly  due  somewhat  to 
the  faith  of  these  simple  people  inspired  by  the  fact 
that  their  prince  had  recovered;  for  in  later  years, 
after  being  in  Washington  for  some  time,  I  found  the 
charm  had  been  broken  and  the  above  satisfactory 
arrangement  was  much  disturbed. 

Female  Seclusion. — As  illustrating  this  faith  and 
the  close  seclusion  in  which  the  women  are  kept,  a 
Korean  lady  actually  died  rather  than  see  me,  though 
I  had  been  called  to  the  house  and  she  seemed  to 
think  that  if  I  simply  looked  at  her  she  would  re- 
cover. She  could  not  bring  herself  to  permit  a 
strange  man  to  look  upon  her  and  actually  died  rather 
than  violate  the  inbred  custom  of  her  country.  Her 
tenacity  to  old  custom  was  fortunate  for  me  since  her 
case  was  beyond  relief. 

Vicarious  Treatment. — A  foreigner  once  sent  his 
Korean  servant  to  me  with  a  chit  or  note,  reading, 
"  Please  give  bearer  a  dose  of  castor  oil."  I  meas- 
ured out  a  liberal  dose  and  compelled  the  somewhat 
reluctant  coolie  to  open  his  mouth,  into  which  the 
medicine  was  poured  and  inevitably  swallowed. 
When  he  returned  his  master  asked  for  the  medicine 
and  seemed  surprised  to  find  that  the  fellow  had 
brought  it  inside. 

Cholera.— Such  diseases  as  cholera,  typhoid  and 
typhus  seem  to  be  endemic  in  Korea  and  their  rav- 


MEDICAL  NOTES  207 

ages  in  times  of  epidemic  are  most  alarming.  A 
number  of  missionaries  have  had  typhus,  most  of  the 
cases  proving  fatal. 

In  the  summer  of  1886  we  had  a  very  severe  epi- 
demic of  cholera,  when  it  was  not  uncommon  to  see 
three  and  even  five  bodies  being  carried  out  on  a 
stretcher  for  burial  in  a  shallow  trench  ;  funerals 
proper  being  quite  out  of  the  question.  Burial  was 
necessarily  such  a  hasty  matter  that  the  subsequent 
rains  soon  washed  the  earth  from  the  partially  de- 
composed remains.     It  was  a  grewsome  sight. 

The  French  fathers  assisted  me  greatly  at  this 
time  by  taking  quantities  of  preventive  medicine 
which  they  used  with  their  people  with  apparent  suc- 
cess. Here  again  it  happened  that  those  who  were 
to  die  did  so  before  I  could  reach  them,  while  the 
others  recovered.  In  some  cases  death  followed  so 
quickly  after  the  onset  that  the  patient  had  no  need 
of  my  services  by  the  time  I  could  reach  him. 

The  government  officials  assisted,  and  issued  in- 
structions regarding  the  use  of  boiled  water,  while 
they  also  provided  free  supplies  of  lime  to  be  used  in 
and  about  the  drains  and  under  the  houses. 

Scaring  the  Demon. — The  people,  however,  think 
that  this  disease  is  caused  by  an  evil  spirit ;  as  a  result 
of  which  belief  they  declined  to  put  the  valuable 
white  medicine  under  the  house  where  the  demon 
could  not  see  it,  but  persisted  instead  in  smearing  it 
over  the  front  door  and  the  walls  of  the  house  where 
it  could  be  seen  and  thus  alarm  the  evil  spirit  so  he 
would  be  afraid  to  enter. 


208  THINGS  KOEEAN 

Others  believe  that  the  cramps  of  cholera  are  due 
to  the  gnawing  of  rats  which  have  crawled  inside  a 
person  while  he  was  asleep.  This  belief  was  sup- 
posed to  be  sustained  by  the  fact  that  a  village  on  a 
hill  with  a  good  supply  of  water  was  free  from 
cholera,  while  the  name  of  the  village  was  indicated 
by  the  same  characters  that  stand  for  cat.  It  was 
proudly  pointed  out  that  as  rats  fear  cats,  this  village 
of  the  cat  was  practically  exempt  from  the  disease. 

Now  that  Seoul  is  about  to  enjoy  as  fine  a  water 
system  as  can  be  built,  thanks  to  the  enterprise  of  a 
couple  of  Americans,  cholera  will  doubtless  be  shorn 
of  much  of  its  horror. 


XIII 

AMERICAN    INTERCOURSE    AND    JAPAN'S     IN- 
DEBTEDNESS TO  KOREA 

Our  early  intercourse  with  Korea  was  not  of  a 
character  altogether  commendable. 

Shipwrecks. — In  1866  the  American  schooner 
Surprise  was  wrecked  off  the  northwest  Korean 
coast  and  the  crew  were  kindly  treated  and  succoured 
by  the  natives,  who  assisted  them  on  their  way  into 
China  where  they  might  find  foreign  ships. 

A  month  later  the  American  schooner,  General 
Sherman,  sailed  from  Tientsin  for  Korea  on  a  myste- 
rious mission.  She  passed  up  the  Tatong  River  at  a 
time  when  an  unusually  severe  rainy  season  had 
caused  such  a  flood  that  the  vessel  was  able  to  reach 
the  anchorage  at  the  northern  capital,  Pengyang, 
whereas  at  ordinary  times  only  little  sampans  are 
able  to  cross  the  bar  below  that  city. 

The  freshet  subsided  and  the  waters  fell  rapidly  so 
that  the  vessel  was  soon  hopelessly  aground. 

A  Massacre. — Just  what  happened  is  not  known, 
but  the  white  man  probably  displayed  his  usual  con- 
tempt for  his  yellow  brother,  and  doubtless  utterly 
failed  to  realize  the  precarious  position  of  the 
schooner  and  her  crew.  At  any  rate  some  alterca- 
tion arose,  resulting  in  the  killing  of  all  the  crew  and 

209 


210  THINGS  KOEEAN 

the  destruction  of  the  vessel.  Nothing  but  the  re- 
puted anchor  was  ever  found  in  after  years  when 
foreigners  had  established  themselves  in  the  country. 

Grave  Robbing. — During  the  next  year,  1867,  a 
German-American,  named  Oppert,  sailed  from  Shang- 
hai with  two  armed  vessels  in  quest  of  the  buried 
treasure  for  which  Korea  was  supposed  to  be 
noted. 

The  rumours  of  the  existence  of  this  treasure,  that 
led  to  such  a  formidable  grave  robbing  expedition, 
were  based  upon  the  custom  prevailing  in  Korea  of 
burying  valuable  articles  with  their  dead.  In  ex- 
planation of  which  custom  a  short  digression  must  be 
made. 

Origin  of  Satsuma  Ware — The  Japanese  learned 
the  art  of  making  fine  pottery  from  the  Koreans, 
who  were  also  their  teachers  in  many  other  useful 
branches.  After  the  great  Japanese  invasion  of 
Korea  in  1598,  General  Nabeshima  gathered  all 
available  specimens  of  the  early  Korean  pottery 
manufacture,  together  with  all  the  potters  themselves 
with  their  families,  and  carried  them  to  Japan,  where 
he  established  the  potters  as  a  colony  on  his  native 
island  of  Satsuma.  Here  these  exiles  continued  the 
manufacture  of  this  ware  and  taught  the  art  to  their 
neighbours  ;  the  remains  of  this  colony  may  still  be 
seen  in  their  place  of  exile. 

From  this  small  beginning  the  vast  manufacture  of 
exquisite  pottery  of  to-day  had  its  origin  in  Japan. 

Pieces  of  the  genuine  ancient  pottery  made  in 
Korea  soon  became  in  great  demand,  bringing  high 


AMEEICAN  INTEKCOUESE  211 

prices  in  Japan  where  such  were  used  in  the  cele- 
brated tea  ceremony  and  were  prized  as  objects  of 
art.  The  seemingly  fabulous  prices  received  for  this 
ware  and  the  fact  that  it  could  no  longer  be  pro- 
duced in  Korea,  whence  even  such  pieces  held  as 
heirlooms  had  disappeared  after  the  invasion,  in- 
duced adventurous  spirits  to  open  and  desecrate  the 
tombs  of  royal  personages  buried  prior  to  the  advent 
of  the  present  dynasty,  which  has  reigned  for  over 
five  hundred  years.  These  graves  were  rich  in  the 
choicest  specimens  of  this  ware  and  the  robbers  were 
well  paid  for  their  efforts.  It  thus  became  noised 
abroad  that  Korean  royal  tombs  were  filled  with 
riches,  gold  coffins  being  mentioned  as  among  the 
treasures,  while  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  simply  this 
pottery  that  gave  the  graves  their  value  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Japanese. 

Such  treaty  port  rumours  were,  however,  the  cause 
of  this  formidable  expedition,  which,  by  the  way,  was 
happily  thwarted  by  the  timely  arrival  on  the  scene 
of  an  American  admiral.  But  it  caused  great  alarm 
to  the  natives  on  their  learning  that  armed  foreign 
ships  had  come  to  their  country  in  order  to  desecrate 
their  ancestral  tombs. 

Korean  Pottery On  the  occasion  of  my  having 

saved  the  life  of  the  prince  as  mentioned  in  another 
chapter,  my  services  were  rewarded  by  the  presenta- 
tion of  a  small  piece  of  this  ware.  It  was  brought  me 
in  great  state  by  a  retinue  of  palace  runners.  When 
the  handsome  lacquered  box  was  taken  from  its  silken 
wrappings  and  found  to  contain  a  little  gray  bowl, 


212  THINGS  KOEEAN 

carefully  packed  in  cotton  wool,  my  amazement  must 
have  been  quite  evident,  for  it  took  much  difficult  ex- 
planation before  I  could  be  made  to  realize  that  this 
was  the  most  highly  prized  article  the  Korean  Court 
could  present  me.  Perhaps  my  expectations  had 
been  raised  too  high ;  at  any  rate  it  seemed  at  that 
time  absurd  that  my  three  months  of  arduous  and 
perilous  work  were  only  prized  at  the  price  of  a  little 
empty  bowl  of  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  quite  ordi- 
nary chinaware.  Later,  on  becoming  acquainted 
with  this  ancient  product  of  Korea's  palmy  days,  I 
succeeded  in  picking  up  quite  a  collection  of  it,  usually 
as  the  result  of  the  disordered  times  following  revolu- 
tions and  lootings.  This  collection  has  now  been  ac- 
quired by  an  American  gentleman  of  wealth  and  ar- 
tistic tastes,  who  intends  eventually  to  present  it  to 
the  Smithsonian  Institution,  the  museum  of  which  in- 
stitution is  now  the  temporary  custodian  of  the  little 
gray  bowl  presented  me  as  above  narrated. 

Our  Expedition. — The  next  American  exploit  in 
Korea  occurred  in  1871,  when  our  minister  at  Peking 
came  to  Korea  with  Admiral  Rogers  and  a  fleet  of 
five  of  our  vessels,  the  Alaska,  Benicia,  Colorado, 
Monocacy  and  Palos.  The  object  of  this  formidable 
visit  was  to  obtain  a  reply  to  a  letter  supposed  to 
have  been  forwarded  to  Seoul  by  the  Chinese  gov- 
ernment for  us,  dealing  with  the  subject  of  the  de- 
struction of  the  General  Sherman,  for  which  grave 
action  we  had  as  yet  secured  no  redress  and  not  even 
an  explanation.  A  further  object  incidental  to  the 
mission  was  to  be  the  arrangement  of  some  basis  of 


AMEEICAN  INTEECOUESE  213 

negotiation  for  the  establishment  of  treaty  relations, 
after  the  manner  in  which  Commodore  Perry  had 
opened  up  Japan  a  few  years  previously. 

Doubtless  the  Koreans  had  never  received  the  let- 
ter in  question,  since  China  may  not  have  considered 
it  to  her  own  interests  to  forward  it.  At  any  rate 
they  had  had  a  very  disagreeable  time  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  last  visit  of  our  flag,  when  borne  by  the 
General  Sherman ,  as  well  as  on  the  occasion  of  Oppert's 
visit.  Further,  they  did  not  wish  to  be  opened  up 
after  the  manner  in  which  Japan  had  been  obliged  to 
unlock  her  doors.  They  asked  only  to  be  let  alone. 
So  that  when  our  ships  began  to  steam  up  the  river 
against  wind  and  tide  and  the  capital  seemed  threat- 
ened, the  forts  on  the  great  Kangwha  Island  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river  opened  fire  upon  the  intruders. 

Our  Korean  War. — Forces  were  promptly  landed 
from  our  fleet  and  the  poor  old  forts  were  stormed 
from  the  ships.  The  casualties  on  our  side  were 
slight, — Lieutenant  McKee  was  killed  as  he  scaled 
the  parapet  in  advance  of  his  men,  followed  closely 
by  the  present  Admiral  Schley.  Two  of  the  men 
were  killed  and  ten  were  wounded,  while  the  Koreans 
lost  two  hundred  and  forty  in  killed,  and  twenty 
wounded  were  captured.  None  seem  to  have  es- 
caped. 

The  old  matchlocks  were  of  little  use  against  mod- 
ern weapons,  and  though  our  men  were  surprised  at 
finding  clumsy  breech-loading  cannon  in  the  forts, 
these  were  placed  so  badly  as  to  be  of  little  use.  The 
defenders  fought  well  and  valiantly  and  did  not  desert 


214  THINGS  KOREAN 

their  posts,  but  it  was  a  useless  slaughter  and  one 
from  which  no  good  results  ensued,  and  of  which  we 
have  not  since  been  proud. 

The  French  had  previously  made  a  similar  and 
fruitless  attempt,  from  which  they  were  driven  off 
with  less  loss  to  the  natives.  This  had  heartened  up 
the  Koreans  somewhat  and  caused  them  to  be,  to  a 
certain  extent,  prepared  for  our  onslaught. 

Up  Salt  River. — The  French  called  this  Han  River 
the  Salle,  which  our  people  pronounced  "  Salt." 
This  ineffectual  attack  and  needless  expenditure  of 
lives  was  therefore  mentioned  as  the  expedition  "  up 
Salt  River,"  and  for  some  time  thereafter  a  futile  at- 
tempt of  any  kind  was  apt  to  be  designated  as  going 
up  Salt  River. 

Our  Treaty. — However,  after  years  of  effort,  we 
finally  succeeded  in  1882  in  concluding  the  first  of  the 
Western  treaties  with  Korea,  thus  bringing  her  re- 
luctantly from  her  coveted  seclusion  into  the  lime- 
light of  foreign  relations,  and  giving  every  one  a 
claim  to  interfere  in  what  she  so  long  considered  her 
own  affairs. 

Korea  has  taken  that  treaty  to  mean  just  what  the 
words  say,  while  we  seem  to  have  utterly  disregarded 
the  solemn  promise  we  therein  voluntarily  made,  that 
we  would  lend  her  our  good  offices  should  she  be  op- 
pressed by  a  third  power ;  thus  breaking  our  faith 
with  a  people  who  trusted  us  implicitly,  and  who  con- 
sented to  the  opening  of  her  doors  on  this  our  guar- 
antee of  friendly  aid. 


XIV 

AMERICAN  COMMERCIAL  INTERCOURSE 

American  business  men  have  received  the  best  of 
treatment  in  Korea.  Prior  to  the  advent  of  the 
recent  Russo-Japanese  war,  Americans  were  in  the 
lead  in  the  large  enterprises  of  that  land  involving  de- 
velopment work  and  the  handling  of  large  sums  of 
money. 

Mines. — One  of  the  most  extensive  and  successful  I 
gold  mining  properties  in  Asia  is  that  of  the  American 
concession  in  Korea,  which  employs  over  half  a  hun- 
dred white  men  and  some  thousands  of  Asiatics  in 
the  operation  of  its  mines  and  mills,  its  electrical  de- 
velopment, transportation,  and  all  the  many  acces- 
sories necessary  to  the  successful  conduct  of  so  large 
a  property.  ' 

Railways. — Americans  built  Korea's  first  steam 
railway,  which  was  sold  to  the  Japanese,  and  is  now 
in  successful  operation  with  American  equipment 
over  a  standard  gauge  track  and  a  ten  span  steel 
bridge  of  two  thousand  feet  in  length.  Although 
this  road  is  but  twenty-five  miles  long,  connecting 
the  capital  with  the  port  of  Chemulpo,  it  was  the 
forerunner  of  the  extensive  system  of  railways  now 
built  and  in  process  of  building  by  the  Japanese  in 
Korea,  and  thus  set  the  standard  as  to  gauge  and 

215 


216  THINGS  KOEEAN 

equipment.  The  roads  in  Japan  were  patterned  after 
those  of  England  and  built,  in  the  first  place,  with 
English  assistance ;  the  result  is  that  they  are  unsatis- 
factory, being  narrow  gauge  and  light.  I  have  heard 
prominent  Japanese  deploring  the  fact  that'  they 
have  not  the  same  system  in  Japan  that  they  are  con- 
ducting so  satisfactorily  in  Korea,  but  it  would  be  a 
great  task  to  change  all  the  roads  of  Japan  at  this 
time. 

The  first  Korean  electric  road  was  also  built  by 
Americans  in  connection  with  a  lighting  plant,  the 
whole  constituting  one  of  the  largest  single  electric 
plants  in  Asia ;  the  success  of  which  is  so  marked 
that  extensions,  made  for  providing  new  power,  are 
necessary  from  time  to  time,  and  the  demand  for 
light  and  power  generally  exceeds  the  supply. 

]  First  Electric  Plant. — This  was  not  the  first  elec- 
tric plant  to  be  established  in  Korea,  for  in  1885  one 
of  the  fine  plants  of  the  Edison  Company  was  in- 
stalled by  men  sent  from  the  inventor's  own  labo- 
ratory for  the  purpose.  In  getting  a  fine  electric 
plant  at  this  early  day  the  Koreans  wished  to  profit 
by  the  experience  of  other  people,  and  since  this  was 
the  latest  and  best  light,  they  skipped  the  gas  period 
and  secured  the  highest  product  of  modern  experience 

Lin  light  development. 

Water- Works — The  firm  that  built  and  now  owns 
the  present  electric  plant  in  Seoul,  is  about  complet- 
ing a  most  necessary  water-works  system  for  the  city, 
on  agreements  executed  long  before  the  recent  war 
placed  all  such  matters  in  the  hands  of  the  Japanese. 


A    STREET-SIDE    TEMPLE    IN    SEOUL 
Trolley  Wires  Show  in  Front 


SEOUL    OFFICES    OF    THE    AMERICAN    FIRM    CONTROLLING 
THE  ELECTRIC  PLANT  AND  WATER  WORKS 


COMMEECIAL  IOTEKCOUKSE  217 

This  plant  is  so  extensive  as  to  provide  for  all 
probable  future  wants,  and  although  the  supply  could 
not  well  be  better,  a  complete  filtration  system  is 
being  installed  for  greater  perfection ;  so  that  as  in 
the  matter  of  light  the  Koreans  passed  from  the  tal- 
low dip  to  electricity,  in  the  matter  of  a  water  supply 
they  will  jump  from  wayside  wells  to  mountain  water 
carefully  filtered  and  delivered  at  the  door  or  in  the 
houses.  — n 

While  these  enterprises  were  American  in  their 
inception,  English  money  had  to  be  secured  for  their 
proper  development  and  execution,  both  in  the  case 
of  the  gold  mines  and  the  railway  and  water-works 
operations,  and  our  English  cousins  thus  profited 
by  our  initiative.  — — J 

We  once  did  quite  a  business  in  cotton  goods, 
though  the  bulk  of  this  trade  was  with  England,  until 
Japan  began  to  quietly  take  it  for  her  own  mills,  as 
was  quite  natural  as  a  result  of  their  success  in  cotton 
manufacture. 

Kerosene. — Our  kerosene  has  had  a  hard  fight 
with  the  Russian  and  Lankat  oils  which  were  often 
offered  for  sale  by  Japanese  merchants  in  the  once 
used  tins  and  cases  of  the  American  product,  while 
the  lettering  displayed  on  the  American  packages 
was  actually  imitated  on  spurious  ones  containing 
the  inferior  oil. 

Through  the  skillful  management  of  the  local 
agent,  this  underhand  work  was  largely  circumvented 
in  a  straightforward  and  successful  business  manner, 
so  that  the  sale  of  the  poorer  oils — which  the  natives 


218  THINGS  KOEEAN 

did  not  really  want — was  materially  checked,  and  our 
own  product  kept  the  field. 

Trade-Marks. — In  a  land  where  trade-mark  regis- 
tration was  unknown  and  where  all  manner  of  de- 
ception might  be  practiced,  such  sale  of  spurious 
goods  was  most  easy.  In  attempting  to  secure  pro- 
tection for  the  sale  of  the  product  of  the  British  and 
American  Tobacco  Company,  I  secured  an  order 
forbidding  the  sale  of  spurious  cigarettes  and  tobacco 
in  the  once  used  boxes  of  the  American  company, 
and  when  this  order  was  promulgated,  somewhat  to 
my  surprise  I  learned  that  it  carried  a  death  penalty 
for  infringement.  This  served  better  than  a  trade- 
mark restriction  so  far  as  the  natives  were  concerned, 
but  scarcely  reached  the  Japanese  merchants  who 
were  the  chief  offenders. 

Americans  Lead Formerly    American    visitors 

were  usually  struck  with  the  unique  situation  in  Korea 
where  their  own  people  were  seen  to  be  in  the  lead. 
To  those  who  had  made  the  trip  by  way  of  the  Suez 
Canal  and  had  visited  that  wonderful  belt  of  com- 
mercial colonies  under  British  rule,  the  sight  of  which 
makes  the  British  blood  in  American  veins  tingle 
with  pride,  this  condition  of  affairs  in  Korea  was 
particularly  impressive.  While  the  American  ele- 
ment and  American  interests  were  something  of  a 
negligible  quantity  in  the  bustling  marts  that 
mark  Britain's  progress  from  Egypt  through  the 
Indian  Ocean  and  the  China  seas ;  in  Korea  every- 
thing seemed  to  be  American  and  our  influence 
to  predominate,  quite  reversing  the  situation  as  com- 


COMMEECIAL  INTEECOUESE  219 

pared  with  the  other  foreign  settlements  of  the  Far 
East. 

This  agreeable  sensation  will  not  now  be  expe- 
rienced by  Americans  who  may  chance  to  visit 
Korea.  Japan  needs  the  country  for  her  growth 
and  development,  and  having  won  the  right,  by  the 
verdict  of  war,  to  do  about  as  she  pleases  with  the 
peninsular  people,  she  is  doing  it  with  a  vengeance. 
American  vested  rights  will  have  to  be  respected,  but 
these  will  gradually  drift  into  Japanese  hands,  until 
conditions  will  correspond  with  those  pertaining  in 
Japan.     It  is  and  will  be — Korea  for  the  Japanese. 

Our  Mistake. — It  did  seem  unaccountable  that  in 
giving  up  our  advanced  position  in  Korea,  we  should 
have  received  nothing  in  return.  Within  a  few  days 
after  the  Japanese  announcement,  in  November,  1 905, 
that  they  had  secured  an  agreement  from  the  Korean 
government  amounting  to  suzerainty,  our  legation 
was  withdrawn  from  that  country  without  giving  the 
Koreans  a  chance  to  be  heard  on  the  subject,  and 
without  waiting  for  England,  the  ally  of  Japan,  to 
make  the  first  move.  In  fact,  we  forced  England's 
hand  in  the  matter. 

This  was  such  a  tremendous  advantage  to  Japan, 
compelling  as  it  did  a  similar  course  on  the  part  of 
the  other  treaty  powers,  that  it  would  seem  to  have 
been  practicable  to  obtain  from  Japan  almost  any 
concession  within  reason  in  consideration  of  our 
adopting  such  course.  We  might  at  least  have  been 
able  to  so  arrange  for  our  withdrawal  as  to  have  in  a 
measure  preserved  our  faith  with  the  Koreans,  even 


220  THINGS  KOEEAN 

though  the  present  result  may  have  seemed  inevi- 
table ;  we  might  at  the  same  time  have  secured  some 
advantage  in  a  commercial  way,  or  in  the  matter  of 
a  naval  base,  which  we  would  now  be  able  to  hold  as 
an  asset  in  any  diplomatic  trade  that  post-bellum  con- 
ditions should  make  necessary. 

England's  Method. — We  are  sometimes  called  a 
nation  of  traders,  but  when  it  comes  to  international 
agreements  we  are  far  from  being  adepts  at  bargain- 
ing. The  British  never  give  up  an  advantage  with- 
out securing  some  consideration  in  return,  and  they 
have  been  known  to  magnify  a  petty  privilege  in 
order  to  have  something  with  which  to  trade,  and 
then  to  arrive  at  a  good  bargain  in  the  dicker.  For 
instance:  In  1885  they  seized  the  Korean  islands, 
known  as  Port  Hamilton,  without  right  or  provoca- 
tion, and  simply  because  this  group  was  thought  to 
be  a  valuable  place  for  a  naval  station  and  liable  to 
fall  into  the  hands  of  Russia.  When  international 
pressure  for  restitution  became  troublesome  and  it 
was  incidentally  learned  that  the  harbour  was  not  so 
desirable  as  it  was  thought  to  be,  the  place  was  given 
up.  In  making  restitution,  however,  the  British  gov- 
ernment very  cleverly  surrendered  the  property  to 
China,  on  condition  that  she  prevent  it  from  falling 
into  the  hands  of  a  third  power.  Japan  had  not  yet 
pricked  the  bubble  of  Chinese  dominance  in  Asia 
and  she  did  not  cut  much  of  a  figure  in  any  such 
agreement,  while  China  moreover  claimed  a  sort  of 
suzerainty  over  Korea.  Japan  effectually  silenced 
this  claim  in  her  war  with  China  of  1894,  but  in  1885 


COMMEECIAL  IOTEBCOUKSE  221 

England  was  on  most  intimate  terms  with  the  great 
Middle  Kingdom  and  had  not  yet  embarked  upon 
her  recent  strange  course  of  backing  up  a  commer- 
cial rival  who  should  wrest  from  her  the  great  China 
trade  with  which  her  commercial  supremacy  in  Asia 
is  so  closely  linked.  ^ 

In  handing  over  this  island  harbour  to  China,  Eng-  ] 
land  prevented  it  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  her 
then  rival,  Russia,  while  she  gratified  China  and 
silenced  the  protests  of  Korea.  The  result  was  prob- 
ably worth  the  trouble,  especially  since  the  property 
was  found  to  be  practically  useless  for  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  intended  when  occupied. 

In  our  action  in  handing  over  Korea  to  Japan,  on 
the  contrary,  we  seem  not  to  have  appreciated  the 
advanced  position  won  by  our  own  citizens  for  our 
commercial  interests,  and  incontinently  handed  over, 
for  no  apparent  consideration  ;  a  hard-earned  and 
profitable  commercial  situation,  for  the  retention  of 
which  England  would  have  made  a  strong  fight  and 
which  she  would  probably  not  have  abandoned  ex- 
cept for  due  consideration. 

Possibly  the  policy  pursued  in  this  instance,  in 
case  there  was  any  policy,  was  that  of  favouring  our 
general  trade  with  Japan,  upon  the  supposition  that 
Korea  under  Japanese  rule  would  become  more  of  a 
consumer  of  general  imports  and  that  our  trade  with 
Japan,  as  the  distributor,  would  increase. 

The  Japanese,  however,  are  distinctly  a  commer- 
cial and  manufacturing  people  and  they  will  do  their 
utmost   to   produce  what   is  wanted  in  Korea  and 


222  THINGS  KOEEAN 

adjacent  lands,  while  as  it  was,  each  American  enter- 
prise constituted  a  centre  for  the  introduction  of 
American  products  pure  and  simple,  which,  with  the 
development  that  each  year  brings,  would  greatly 
have  enhanced  our  trade  with  the  eight  or  ten  mil- 
lions of  Korea's  population. 


XV 
CONSULAR  AND  DIPLOMATIC  INCIDENTS 

I  once  had  a  guest  at  the  American  Legation  for  a 
few  days  during  one  of  our  periodic  excitements, 
when  it  seemed  to  be  my  particular  province  to  save 
the  lives  of  certain  native  officials  whose  posts  were 
desired  by  rivals. 

Alter  leaving  Korea  my  friend  wrote  me  that 
his  little  experience  at  Seoul  had  convinced  him  that 
"  a  diplomatic  career  might  be  checkered  but  never 
dull."  His  remark  very  aptly  described  ordinary 
conditions  in  that  little  empire. 

Marine  Guards. — In  other  chapters  mention  has 
been  made  of  the  internal  disturbances  common  to 
the  land,  arising  in  some  cases  to  the  dignity  of  revo- 
lutions. During  the  period  of  excitement  attendant 
upon  the  Japan-China  war  of  1894,  and  the  conse- 
quent disorder  that  ensued,  resulting  in  the  assassina- 
tion of  the  queen  of  Korea  and  the  escape  of  the  king 
to  the  Russian  Legation,  our  own  legation  with  others, 
was  furnished  with  a  guard  of  marines  from  one  of 
our  respective  vessels  stationed  at  Chemulpo.  The 
same  was  true  during  the  inception  and  progress  of  the 
Russo-Japanese  war.  In  fact  the  summoning  of  the 
American  guard  in  December,  1903,  followed  as  it  was 
by  similar  action  on  the  part  of  other  legations,  was 
reported  as  being  the  first  real  intimation  to  the  world 

223 


224  THINGS  KOREAN 

that  war  was  imminent.  Telegraphic  reports  were  to 
the  effect  that  the  summoning  of  these  so-called 
"  mosquito  armies  "  made  quite  an  impression  at  St. 
Petersburg  where  accurate  information  seems  not  to 
have  been  always  at  hand. 

The  arrival  of  our  own  guard  on  that  particular 
occasion  caused  not  a  little  consternation,  for  while 
the  request  had  simply  been  that  a  ship  be  stationed 
at  Chemulpo  prepared  to  land  a  small  guard  if  neces- 
sary, it  seems  to  have  been  thought  better  to  send  a 
detachment  of  one  hundred  marines  from  the  Philip- 
pines on  a  transport.  While  twenty-five  men  might 
have  been  landed  with  little  comment,  the  immediate 
landing  of  one  hundred,  for  whom  quarters  had  to  be 
provided  outside  the  legation  grounds,  since  they 
could  not  remain  on  the  unheated  transport  in  zero 
weather,  caused  criticism  as  well  as  comment ;  and 
under  Russian  influence  this  developed  into  actual 
opposition,  so  that  an  attempt  was  made  to  prevent 
these  men  from  marching  into  the  city.  This  was  a 
most  unusual  thing,  for  before  that  time  and  very 
soon  thereafter,  the  presence  of  an  American  guard 
was  about  the  most  desirable  thing  in  the  estimation 
of  the  native  officials,  seeming  to  be  a  pledge  of  peace 
and  of  safety  to  them.  In  this  case  the  men  had 
started  for  the  city  before  the  opposition  was  made 
known  and  there  could  be  no  talk  of  turning  back ; 
therefore  such  opposition,  not  representing  true 
Korean  opinion,  could  only  be  ignored.  The  secre- 
tary of  legation  was  accordingly  sent  outside  the 
walls  to  meet  the  guard,  and  being  a  man  of  good 


CONSULAB  INCIDENTS  225 

sense  and  judgment  and  abundant  in  resources,  he 
could  be  depended  upon  to  take  the  proper  course 
under  any  circumstances  that  might  arise.  When  an 
armed  sentry  stepped  out  into  the  city  gate  and  at- 
tempted to  bar  the  way  of  the  troop  with  his  musket, 
the  secretary  brushed  him  aside  as  though  he  were  a 
coolie  with  a  stick  and  the  troop  marched  through, 
thus  closing  that  incident,  for  in  a  few  days  the  ruler 
was  showering  presents  upon  the  men  of  the  guard 
for  saving  some  of  his  palace  buildings  next  to  the 
legation,  in  a  severe  fire  that  came  near  wiping  out 
both  legation  and  palace. 

Palace  Neighbours. — The  very  proximity  of  the 
palace  helped  to  make  things  a  little  less  dull  at  the 
legations.  Formerly  the  extensive  palace  grounds 
and  buildings  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  city  were 
used,  but  after  the  assassination  of  the  queen,  the 
king  built  a  new  home  for  himself  adjoining  the 
American  Legation,  which  he  finally  surrounded  on 
three  sides,  so  that  we  were  the  closest  of  neighbours. 
When  I  bought  and  fitted  up  a  summer  place  at  the 
seaside,  near  Chemulpo,  he  sent  officials  there  and 
had  them  buy  up  a  whole  hillside  for  the  purpose  of 
building  a  summer  palace  adjoining  my  grounds,  but 
wars  prevented  that  project  from  being  carried  out. 

Refuge  and  Entertainment. — But  even  when  there 
were  no  wars  or  revolutions  to  create  disorder,  some 
intrigue  between  parties  was  likely  to  furnish  excite- 
ment, for  the  Koreans  are  past-masters  at  intrigue 
and  seem  to  imbibe  it  with  their  mother's  milk.  As 
the  result  of  some  such  intrigue  some  liberal  official 


226  THINGS  KOEEAN 

would  present  himself  from  time  to  time  at  the 
American  Legation  for  refuge.  So  many  of  these 
better  class  officials  had  been  to  America  and  there 
imbibed  liberal  ideas  which  they  would  try  to  put 
into  force  in  their  country  and  thereby  get  them- 
selves into  trouble,  that  we  could  not  well  turn  them 
from  our  doors,  especially  as  we  knew  that  a  few  days 
would  suffice  for  calmer  councils  to  prevail  and  re- 
sentment to  subside,  while  valuable  lives  might  thus 
be  saved.  I  remember  being  awakened  one  night  to 
receive  a  pencilled  note  written  on  a  scrap  of  paper 
by  a  Korean  official  who  had  most  creditably  repre- 
sented his  government  in  America.  He  was  in 
danger  of  his  life  and  begged  the  protection  of  our 
residence  for  a  short  time.  His  quaint  note  ran 
thus,  "  Dear  Minister,  I  am  very  afraid  of  this  world, 
won't  you  let  me  visit  you  for  a  few  days  ?  " 

In  the  early  days  before  the  railways,  there  was  no 
proper  hotel  in  Seoul  and  guests  would  usually  bring 
some  sort  of  introductory  letter  and  secure  entertain- 
ment at  the  legation  of  their  country.  As  there  were 
more  Americans  than  other  Western  foreigners  present 
and  as  we  kept  a  detached  house  fitted  up  for  the  en- 
tertainment of  travellers  for  many  years,  a  guide- 
book published  in  Europe  had  an  entry  under  the 
head  of  hotels  in  Seoul — "  Guest  House,  American 
Legation."  The  hospitality  of  our  official  establish- 
ment had  therefore  become  an  international  feature 
in  connection  with  Korea. 

Baby  Eating. — In  the  early  days  one  of  these 
periods    of    excitement    started    with    a    malicious 


CONSULAK  INCIDENTS  227 

rumour,  circulated  by  certain  Chinese  in  Seoul,  to  the 
effect  that  foreigners  were  in  the  habit  of  devouring 
native  children  and  of  using  their  eyes  to  make 
medicine.  It  was  a  rumour  similar  to  this  that 
caused  the  fatal  riots  in  Tientsin  in  the  early 
seventies,  and  as  my  then  predecessor  at  the  legation, 
the  American  minister  himself,  was  credited  by  these 
Chinese  with  having  roast  baby  on  his  table,  he  was 
obliged  to  summon  a  guard  for  his  protection. 

As  a  rule  there  was  little  question  as  to  our 
personal  safety  since  Americans  were  favourites  with 
the  people,  but  all  these  native  disturbances  helped 
to  make  life  checkered  and  quite  the  opposite  of 
dull ;  while  life  at  any  court,  with  its  more  or  less 
intimate  connection  with  other  centres  of  political 
interest  and  initiative,  possesses  a  charm  peculiar  to 
itself,  even  if  that  particular  court  chances  to  be  an 
insignificant  one. 

Varied  Functions. — The  office  at  Seoul  for  many 
years  carried  the  rank  of  minister  resident  and 
consul  general,  and  even  when  I  had  been  promoted 
to  be  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipo- 
tentiary it  was  difficult  to  distinguish  between 
functions  that  were  consular  or  diplomatic. 

It  thus  befell  the  American  representative,  by 
virtue  of  the  extraterritorial  powers  conferred  upon 
his  nationals  by  treaty,  to  legalize  marriages,  to 
record  deaths,  to  transfer  property,  to  execute  deeds 
and  keep  a  record  of  all  real  estate  transfers,  to  settle 
estates,  to  sign  invoices  and  attend  to  all  manner  of 
shipping  matters  including  the  purchase  and  sale  of 


228  THINGS  KOEEAN 

vessels,  and  to  settle  disputes  if  possible  or  where 
impossible,  to  open  court  and  act  as  judge  in  all 
matters  concerning  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
American  citizens. 

A  Murder  Trial. — On  one  occasion  it  fell  to  my 
unhappy  lot  to  open  the  first  court  we  Americans 
had  held  in  Korea,  for  the  trial  of  a  fellow  citizen  on 
the  charge  of  murder.  Further,  I  had  been  obliged 
to  apprehend  and  arrest  the  poor  fellow  charged  with 
the  crime,  and  to  prepare  a  jail  and  hire  a  constable, 
though  the  State  Department  had  just  forbade  my 
incurring  any  such  expense.  I  may  add,  however, 
that  they  promptly  honoured  the  drafts  for  this 
expenditure  once  it  was  necessarily  incurred. 

In  this  case  I  had  to  be  prosecuting  attorney  and 
judge,  though  I  was  allowed  four  associates  on  the 
"  bench."  One  of  these  was  an  American  lawyer  of 
reputation  who  had  practiced  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  and  we  were  at  least 
assured  that  things  would  be  done  properly  and  that 
there  would  be  no  miscarriage  of  justice. 

The  man  was  convicted,  and  the  death  penalty 
having  been  abolished  in  the  federal  courts,  he  was 
sentenced  to  life  imprisonment.  For  three  years  he 
was  kept  on  the  legation  grounds  in  a  small  building 
occupied  by  the  constable's  quarters  and  the  jail. 
He  escaped  once  but  got  so  cold  and  hungry  that  he 
was  glad  to  be  apprehended  and  brought  back  to  his 
warm  quarters  and  the  constable's  well-supplied 
table.  In  time  a  bill  was  passed  through  Congress 
permitting    of    his    being    sent    to    San    Quentin, 


CONSTJLAK  INCIDENTS  229 

California,  whence  he  was  pardoned  in  time  to  allow 
him  to  be  present  in  San  Francisco  on  that  memo- 
rable 1 8th  of  April,  1906,  when  it  seemed  to  him,  as 
he  wrote  me,  that  he  had  gotten  away  from  his  con- 
dition of  living  death  just  in  time  to  see  the  end  of 
the  world. 

This  trial  was  really  a  most  difficult  matter  to  ar- 
range for  and  conduct,  especially  for  one  who  had 
never  been  around  courts  of  justice  and  who 
possessed  no  technical  knowledge  of  law  and  legal 
procedure.  We  had  none  of  the  necessary  forms  or 
blanks  to  make  legal  process  easy,  necessitating  a 
vast  amount  of  work  in  arranging  for  the  petty  de- 
tails of  the  case.  Then  it  was  a  rather  discomforting 
thing  to  have  to  deprive  a  fellow  man  of  his  liberty  by 
the  stroke  of  a  pen,  especially  since  his  place  of  con- 
finement was  to  be  one's  own  dooryard. 

A  Service  a  Necessity. — This  incident  shows  the 
necessity  to  us  of  having  a  regular  consular  service, 
with  certain  legal  and  linguistic  requirements  made 
compulsory  for  candidates  who  hope  to  serve  in 
countries  where  we  enjoy  extraterritorial  rights. 
This  legal  difficulty  has  been  somewhat  relieved  in 
China  and  Korea  by  the  establishment  of  our  court 
at  Shanghai,  yet  some  legal  knowledge  seems  most 
necessary  for  consuls  in  those  countries. 

Plan  for  a  Service. — When  serving  with  the 
Korean  Legation  in  Washington  in  1888,  our  Naval 
Academy  was  graduating  classes  containing  more 
members  than  could  be  provided  with  positions  in 
the    navy.      Quite    a    large    proportion    of    these 


230  THINGS  KOEEAN 

graduates  were  therefore  obliged  to  give  up  the  call- 
ing for  which  they  had  been  prepared  and  go  back 
to  civil  life.  Some  of  these  bright  young  men  came 
to  me  to  see  about  securing  employment  with  the 
Korean  government,  which  brought  their  condition 
to  my  personal  knowledge.  This  suggested  a  plan 
which  later  years  of  observation  only  served  to  im- 
press more  strongly  upon  my  mind,  and  I  shall 
digress  a  little  to  mention  it  for  the  first  time  in  print, 

It  is  that  a  certain  number  of  the  graduates  of  An- 
napolis should  be  allowed  annually  to  elect  to  enter 
the  consular  service.  This  service  would  thus  secure 
picked  young  men  of  good  health  and  habits,  of  good 
education  and  of  gentlemanly  manners  and  deport- 
ment, while  they  would  be  familiar  with  polite  society 
and  well  qualified  to  attend  to  the  social  duties  which 
would  devolve  upon  them,  the  importance  of  which 
is  not  always  appreciated  by  those  desiring  such  po- 
sitions for  themselves  or  their  friends.  Moreover, 
their  education  would  be  in  line  with  their  future 
duties.  They  would  be  familiar  with  shipping  mat- 
ters which  occupy  so  much  of  the  time  of  a  port  con- 
sul ;  they  would  be  qualified  in  at  least  one  foreign 
language ;  they  would  know  the  rudiments,  at  least, 
of  common  and  international  law,  and  they  would 
presumably  represent  us  in  a  dignified,  discreet  and 
gentlemanly  manner,  for  a  finer  set  of  men  than  those 
composing  our  force  of  naval  officers  would  be  hard 
to  find  anywhere. 

Of  course  now  that  the  demand  for  officers  for  our 
navy  seems  greater  than  the  supply,  perhaps  it  is  late 


OONSULAE  INCIDENTS  231 

to  mention  this  plan ;  still  it  is  not  impossible  to  en- 
large the  capacity  of  the  academy,  and  the  very  fact 
of  this  privilege  of  selection  being  open  to  graduates 
might  make  the  naval  education  offered  to  our  young 
men  seem  all  the  more  attractive.  It  is  a  plan  that 
would  certainly  improve  present  conditions,  and  one 
that  could  not  well  result  in  disaster. 

All  that  has  been  said  of  Annapolis  probably  ap- 
plies in  a  great  measure  to  West  Point,  but  the  writer 
has  had  little  personal  acquaintance  with  the  army. 

Missionary  Difficulties. — A  body  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  missionary  men  and  women,  with  their  large 
native  following,  brought  plenty  of  work  to  the  lega- 
tion ;  for  while  the  simple  and  kindly  natives  accept 
Christianity  readily,  the  official  class  were  apt  to  let 
pass  no  chance  for  personal  gain,  and  the  frugal  hab- 
its taught  by  the  missionaries  usually  resulted  in 
bringing  about  a  better  worldly  condition  to  their  fol- 
lowers, making  them  consequently  the  more  liable  to 
magisterial  attention.  In  interfering  with  these  na- 
tive Christians  the  officials  would  sometimes  overstep 
their  rights  and  give  good  cause  for  the  foreign 
teacher  to  take  up  the  case  for  his  native  pupil. 
Sometimes,  also,  these  cases  seem  to  have  been  wel- 
comed by  some  of  the  more  indiscreet  among  the 
missionaries,  who  may  have  thought  that  the  legation 
officials  were  in  need  of  stimulating  excitement.  At 
any  rate,  mission  cases  were  almost  always  "  on  the 
docket." 

Promotion  of  Commerce. — It  seemed  to  be  the 
province  of  the  American  representative  to  further 


232  THINGS  KOEEAN 

the  business  interests  of  his  nationals,  at  least  it 
seemed  to  be  the  case  in  Korea  where  I  chanced  to 
occupy  a  rather  unique  position  of  influence  with  the 
court.  At  a  time  when  I  was  merely  secretary  of 
legation,  I  was  in  the  palace  one  night,  where  previous 
service  as  physician  and  adviser  made  me  a  somewhat 
familiar  figure,  when  the  subject  of  increasing  the  in- 
terest of  America  in  Korea  came  up.  I  suggested 
that  the  best  way  to  increase  this  interest  would  be  to 
enlist  American  capital  in  the  development  of  the 
country.  This  led  to  quite  a  long  discussion  and  re- 
sulted in  my  carrying  away  a  concession  for  a  gold 
mining  district.  Not  knowing  of  any  one  who  was 
especially  anxious  to  have,  or  able  to  handle,  such  a 
property,  I  made  out  the  concession  in  the  name  of 
an  American  business  man  in  Japan  whom  I  knew  to 
be  interested  in  Korea  and  whom  I  respected  highly. 
He  was  very  much  surprised  at  finding  such  an  im- 
portant document  lying  on  his  desk  with  his  morning 
mail,  as  he  had  had  no  premonition  of  the  fact  that 
he  was  to  be  made  the  partner  of  a  king  in  a  gold 
mine.  He  soon  disposed  of  his  concession  to  other 
Americans  who  have  made  of  it  one  of  the  noted 
commercial  successes  of  Asia. 

Mines. — The  grant  of  this  concession  brought 
trouble  to  the  poor  Koreans,  for  every  other  repre- 
sentative in  time  demanded  a  mine  for  his  people. 
After  considerable  delay  each  was  given  a  mining 
grant,  but  the  American  was  the  only  successful  one ; 
due  to  the  fact  that,  as  the  result  of  a  long  train  of 
circumstances,  it  had  become  known  to  me  exactly 


CONSULAR  INCIDENTS  233 

which  district  was  considered  the  richest  by  the  na- 
tives, and  it  was  this  district,  twenty-five  by  thirty 
miles  in  extent,  that  I  named  in  the  concession. 

Assassination  Promotes  Railways. — On  another 
occasion  the  distress  produced  by  the  awful  fate  of 
the  queen  actually  led  to  the  grant  of  a  railway  con- 
cession to  an  American,  in  the  following  manner : 

While  serving  as  charge  d'affaires  I  was  called 
out  of  a  sick-bed  at  dawn  of  an  October  day  in  1895, 
by  an  urgent  request  from  the  king  that  I  come  to 
the  palace  where  serious  things  were  taking  place. 
I  called  for  the  Russian  minister  on  my  way,  and  to- 
gether we  repaired  to  the  palace,  arriving  in  time  to 
see  the  blood-stained  miscreants  leaving  after  having 
murdered  the  queen.  Following  this  event,  which 
has  caused  the  Japanese  government  great  regret,  the 
palace  and  its  occupants  were  closely  guarded  by  the 
Japanese,  notwithstanding  which  the  king  and  crown 
prince  escaped  in  disguise  and  fled  to  the  Russian 
Legation,  in  February  of  1896,  where  they  remained 
for  a  year  and  a  half. 

On  the  October  morning  when  I  went  to  the  palace 
six  of  the  highest  officials  in  the  government,  all  fa- 
vourable to  the  king,  took  refuge  in  my  bedroom  and 
my  wife  dressed  the  wounds  of  those  who  were  in- 
jured. These  men  were  kept  as  refugees  at  the  lega- 
tion until,  upon  the  escape  of  the  king  to  the  Rus- 
sian Legation,  they  were  made  the  cabinet,  with  my 
old  friend  the  former  minister  to  Washington  as 
prime  minister  upon  my  own  recommendation. 
Having  done  so  much  for  them  they  naturally  wished 


234  THINGS  KOEEAN 

to  return  the  compliment  and  when  I  asked  for  a 
concession  for  a  railway  to  connect  Seoul  and  Che- 
mulpo it  was  granted.  This  was  made  out  in  the 
name  of  the  man  to  whom  the  mining  concession 
had  unexpectedly  gone,  for  while  he  did  not  seem  to 
care  for  mines,  he  did  want  a  railway  concession. 
He  had  been  requested  a  few  years  before  to  come 
from  New  York  to  Seoul  to  negotiate  for  the  con- 
struction of  railways,  and  after  some  weeks  of  pre- 
liminary discussion  he  was  about  to  close  up  the 
negotiations  when  the  Chinese  minister  heard  of  the 
matter  and  peremptorily  stopped  the  whole  proceed- 
ing, thus  greatly  retarding  progress  in  Korea  and 
causing  the  American  a  grievous  loss  of  time  and 
money,  for  which  there  seemed  to  be  no  redress.  It 
was  a  matter  of  pride,  therefore,  on  my  part,  to  se- 
cure this  satisfaction  for  my  fellow  countryman, 
while  the  road  itself  seemed  an  absolute  necessity,  as 
it  has  since  proved  to  be. 

Electric  Plants  and  Water-Works. — Other  enter- 
prises in  which  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  assist  our 
people  were  electric  lighting  and  trolley  plants  and 
water- works. 

A  horse  railway  had  been  under  consideration  for 
some  time,  but  a  Korean  who  had  served  in  Wash- 
ington and  had  seen  the  electric  road  just  then  com- 
pleted in  that  city,  which  was  one  of  the  first  to  be 
successfully  operated  in  our  country,  persuaded  the 
ruler  that,  as  in  the  matter  of  the  electric  light,  they 
should  profit  by  our  experience,  skip  the  intermediate 
stages  and  get  the  best  and  latest  development.     An 


CONSULAR  INCIDENTS  235 

electric  railway  was  therefore  decided  upon  and  the 
contract  for  construction  was  given  to  an  American 
firm  then  operating  in  Korea,  together  with  an  agree- 
ment covering  electric  lighting  and  water-works. 
Later  it  devolved  upon  me  to  foreclose  a  mortgage 
upon  this  railway  property,  which  resulted  in  making 
the  Americans  joint  owners  with  the  ruler  in  this 
trolley  line,  which  has  since  developed  into  a  most 
popular  and  profitable  enterprise. 

The  water-works  franchise  was  a  matter  in  which 
I  had  taken  a  special  interest  ever  since  the  days  of 
my  medical  service  in  the  cholera  epidemic.  I  had 
frequently  seen  people  taking  their  drinking  water 
from  roadside  wells,  the  walls  of  which  also  formed 
the  wall  of  a  sewer  flowing  alongside.  This  enter- 
prise did  not  promise  so  well  as  some  of  the  others, 
though  it  was  more  greatly  needed,  and  it  was  a  great 
source  of  gratification  to  know  that  finally  the  people 
were  to  have  mountain  water  brought  right  to  their 
doors,  after  I  had  been  urging  it  upon  every  possible 
concessionaire  who  came  along  for  years.  The  plant 
is  now  nearing  completion  and  the  supply  of  water 
will  be  abundant  and  as  good  as  the  best. 

All  these  varied  enterprises  afforded  ample  occu- 
pation, for  with  the  rivalry  between  individuals,  and 
the  strife  between  the  various  representatives  to  see 
that  no  other  nationals  got  more  favourable  terms  or 
greater  rights  than  his  own,  one  was  kept  on  the 
alert  continually.  Then  when  a  concession  was  al- 
lotted the  trouble  had  only  begun,  for  there  was  the 
enforcing  of  its  terms  before  officials  who  might  have 


236  THINGS  KOEEAN 

been  newly  appointed  and  did  not  approve  of  letting 
in  the  foreigner  to  such  an  extent.  Sometimes  riots 
would  occur,  as  in  the  case  of  the  early  days  of  the 
trolley,  which  had  excited  the  enmity  of  the  carriers' 
guild  so  that  when  a  severe  drought  occurred  these 
people  convinced  the  populace  that  the  dry  weather 
was  due  to  the  electric  wires,  and  a  riot  ensued.  The 
same  was  true  when  a  child  was  accidentally  run  over 
and  killed  in  the  early  period  of  the  operation  of  the 
cars  in  those  crowded  streets. 

A  Promoter — It  was  a  somewhat  unique  position 
in  which  I  found  myself  upon  leaving  Korea  after 
twenty-one  years'  residence  there,  having  to  my  credit 
the  introduction  of  the  following  new  departures,  all 
of  a  useful  nature : — Protestant  missions  and  Western 
medical  science ;  modern  mining  on  a  colossal  scale ; 
steam  railways ;  electric  trolleys  and  water-works, 
all  of  which  were  left  in  a  successful  going  condition. 

Entertainment. — One  of  the  pleasantest  duties  of 
our  official  life  was  the  entertainment  of  visiting 
Americans.  Seoul  was  so  far  off  the  beaten  lines  of 
tourist  travel  that  we  were  not  overburdened,  while 
those  who  had  the  means  and  the  persistence  to  come 
so  far,  were  usually  interesting  and  well  worth  meet- 
ing. During  the  early  days  when  hotels  were  such 
only  in  name  and  the  "  Guest  House,  American  Lega- 
tion "  was  given  as  the  stopping-place  of  the  guide- 
books, the  legations  were  the  natural  stopping-places 
for  visitors. 

Legation  Buildings. — The  other  powers  each  had 
more  pretentious  buildings  for  the  housing  of  their 


CONSULAE  INCIDENTS  237 

representatives  in  that  land  than  had  our  own  govern- 
ment. We  continue  to  occupy  a  quaint  but  pictur- 
esque bungalow,  once  the  home  of  a  high  native 
dignitary.  It  is  situated  in  a  quarter  occupied  largely 
by  legations  and  the  new  palace.  It  has  extensive, 
wooded  grounds,  with  large  stretches  of  greensward, 
making  a  comfortable  and  artistic  compound,  though 
the  building  is  one  that  hardly  does  us  credit  in  com- 
parison with  the  massive  structures  erected  by  the 
other  countries.  However,  as  diplomatic  represen- 
tation is  now  at  an  end  and  at  least  one  of  these  pre- 
tentious legation  buildings  has  been  sold  upon  the 
withdrawal  of  the  minister,  it  may  be  considered  well 
that  we  did  not  build,  though  the  British  buildings 
are  just  as  serviceable  for  the  staff  of  the  consulate 
general  as  they  were  for  the  minister,  and  our  own 
consul  general  should  be  as  well  housed  as  his 
colleagues. 

A  Guest. — Sometimes  we  would  be  called  upon  to 
entertain  people  who  proved  to  be  somewhat  peculiar, 
as  in  the  extreme  case  which  follows.  We  had  done 
our  best  to  be  agreeable  to  a  guest  during  his  week's 
visit  and  supposed  we  had  succeeded,  for  he  seemed 
very  anxious  to  do  something  in  the  way  of  return- 
ing the  compliment.  Upon  his  insistence  we  finally 
commissioned  him  to  send  us  a  small  article  from 
Japan,  giving  him  the  exact  price  for  the  purchase, 
when  he  seemed  lost  in  thought  and  finally  an- 
nounced that  there  would  be  two  cents  postage 
on  the  article.  The  postage  was  thereupon  pre- 
paid. 


238  THINGS  KOREAN 

A  Strange  Career.— It  is  a  rather  strange  termina- 
tion of  a  career  begun  as  a  medical  missionary  to 
have  it  end  as  a  minister  plenipotentiary ;  yet  the 
change  was  so  gradual  as  to  be  little  noticeable,  be- 
ginning with  a  preliminary  service  with  the  Korean 
Legation  in  Washington,  and  then  step  by  step  from 
the  lowest  post  in  our  own  service  up  through  all  the 
grades  below  ambassador.  As  this  service  was  con- 
tinuous and  all  in  one  country,  and  practically  coinci- 
dent with  the  whole  period  of  that  country's  diplo- 
matic relations,  it  enabled  one  unconsciously  to  ac- 
quire a  useful  familiarity  with  conditions,  such  as 
would  be  difficult  to  secure  in  a  period  of  shorter 
service.  It  also  enabled  me  to  hold  commissions 
consecutively  under  Presidents  Harrison,  Cleveland, 
McKinley  and  Roosevelt. 

Minister  and  Consul. — Here  in  America  it  is  some- 
times amusing  to  see  how  confused  some  of  our 
people  are  by  the  term  minister  as  applied  to  a  gov- 
ernment official.  Consul  is  a  term  readily  under- 
stood, but  the  title  minister  seems  usually  to  be  taken 
in  its  clerical  and  religious  sense. 

Some  time  ago  I  was  introduced  by  a  friend  to  an 
acquaintance  of  his  as  lately  minister  to  Korea.  The 
man  remarked  in  a  very  patronizing  manner,  "  Yes, 
of  what  denomination  ?  "  I  replied  that  I  was  a  Pres- 
byterian, not  wishing  to  go  into  details.  He  then 
asked  if  I  had  "  done  any  good  over  there,"  to  which 
I  replied  that  I  had  tried  to  do  my  duty.  He  then 
asked  if  I  had  succeeded  in  "  converting  any  of  'hem 
heathen,"  whereupon  my  friend  interposed  and  said 


CONSULAK  INCIDENTS  239 

that  I  was  our  government  minister,  and  the  man  de- 
manded to  know  what  our  government  meant  by 
sending  ministers  out  there  when  Church  and  state 
were  separate  with  us.  To  this  my  friend  explained 
that  he  meant  something  like  consul  only  higher,  and 
the  instantaneous  change  in  the  man's  manner  was 
quite  amusing. 

In  a  land  where  Christian  missions  occupy  such  a 
prominent  place,  it  was  perhaps  just  as  well  that  the 
representative  should  have  been  connected  with  the 
same  work,  since  the  protection  of  mission  interests 
occupied  so  much  of  his  time. 

The  Higher  Law. — People  with  convictions  so 
strong  as  to  lead  them  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  are  apt  to  become  devoted  to  one  idea  ex- 
clusively, and  this  devotion  renders  their  conduct  at 
times  somewhat  embarrassing.  One  of  my  colleagues 
had  a  citizen  among  the  missionaries  who  fell  out 
with  the  native  officials  and  later  disagreed  with  his 
own  representative.  When  ordered  to  pursue  a  cer- 
tain course  the  man  objected  on  the  ground  that  he 
was  subject  to  a  higher  law  and  to  the  heavenly 
court.  My  friend  replied  that  as  he  had  not  jurisdic- 
tion in  that  court  he  could  not  well  listen  to  an  ap- 
peal and  must  insist  upon  compliance  with  his  orders 
so  long  as  the  missionary  remained  within  his  juris- 
diction. 

Strange  Requests. — Our  consulates  and  legations 
are  continually  in  receipt  of  requests  from  enterpris- 
ing merchants  at  home  regarding  possible  markets 
for  our  productions,  and  some  of  these  requests  are  at 


240  THINGS  KOEEAN 

times  amusing  because  of  their  inappropriateness  ;  as 
for  instance  when  a  firm  of  manufacturers  wrote  to 
request  information  in  regard  to  the  market  for  ma- 
terials for  the  upholstery  of  Pullman  cars.  Some 
years  later  we  had  the  useful  jinrickisha,  which  being 
drawn  by  a  man  is  sometimes  called  the  M  pull-man 
car  "  of  the  East,  but  at  that  time  we  had  not  even 
this  distant  approach  to  our  luxurious  wheeled  pal- 
aces, upon  which  one  might  base  a  report. 

A  Hoax. — At  another  time  a  sensational  story 
published  in  our  home  newspapers  resulted  in  so 
many  requests  that  I  was  obliged  to  issue  a  circular 
contradicting  the  whole  thing.  The  papers  would 
not  make  any  correction  but  continued  to  publish  the 
story  which  was  translated  into  foreign  languages  and 
thus  brought  similar  requests  to  the  other  legations 
in  Seoul. 

I  refer  to  the  story  of  the  fictitious  "  Emily  Brown," 
who  was  described  in  the  article  as  being  the  daugh- 
ter of  an  American  missionary  and  married  to  the 
emperor  of  Korea. 

Although  no  shadow  of  foundation  ever  existed 
upon  which  such  a  narrative  could  be  based,  it  was  so 
cleverly  written,  bringing  in  names  of  real  places  and 
living  participants  in  the  ceremony — myself  among 
the  number — that  it  was  taken  by  most  people  as 
truth,  and  was  so  much  relished  by  the  newspaper 
publishers  that  they  flatly  refused  to  suppress  or  con- 
tradict it 

One  result  of  the  publication  of  this  wild  yarn  was 
that  the  American  Legation  was  deluged  with  appli- 


CONSULAR  INCIDENTS  241 

cations  for  positions  at  this  semi- American  court: 
Applications  covering  the  post  of  nurse — wet  and 
dry ;  physicians  in  ordinary  and  extraordinary  ;  lady's 
maid  ;  governess ;  coachman ;  cook  ;  and  even  dentists 
made  application  for  one  of  these  court  positions. 

So  greatly  was  this  story  relished  that  it  has  been 
resurrected,  furbished  up  a  little,  and  published  re- 
cently since  the  abdication  of  the  emperor  of  Korea, 
showing  poor  "  Emily  "  in  distress,  riding  astride  on 
a  diminutive  donkey,  wearing  no  veil,  and  in  an  alto- 
gether impossible  situation  for  one  supposedly  hold- 
ing the  rank  conferred  upon  her  by  her  newspaper 
parents.  However,  it  seemed  to  suit  the  vaudeville 
taste  of  the  rag-time  portion  of  our  great  newspaper 
public. 

Taken  for  Vaudeville. — That  reminds  me  that  a 
party  of  Korean  diplomats  under  my  escort  were 
once  taken  for  a  vaudeville  troupe.  It  was  in  1888 
when  the  first  legation  was  en  route  from  Korea  to 
Washington.  We  stopped  rather  late  in  the  evening 
to  have  our  dinner  at  Cheyenne,  dining-cars  in  that 
region  being  at  that  time  a  thing  of  the  future.  The 
manager  of  a  vaudeville  troupe  that  were  our  fellow 
passengers  on  the  train,  came  up  to  me  in  a  fraternal 
manner  and  asked  where  I  was  going  to  show  next. 
I  explained  carefully  the  nature  of  my  party  and 
seemed  to  have  some  difficulty  in  making  him  under- 
stand that  this  was  a  diplomatic  party  en  route  to 
Washington  where  they  would  be  received  by  the 
president. 

We  separated  for  our  meal  and  met  afterwards  on 


242  THINGS  KOEEAN 

the  way  to  our  respective  cars,  when  my  new  ac- 
quaintance showed  a  most  friendly  disposition  and  a 
desire  to  make  amends  for  any  seeming  obtuseness, 
for  he  offered,  if  we  would  stop  over  Sunday  at  Salt 
Lake,  to  give  us  a  benefit. 


XVI 
POLITICAL  CHANGES  AND  PROBABILITIES 

During  twenty- one  years'  residence  in  Korea  we 
saw  great  changes  in  the  political  aspect  of  affairs. 
During  this  time  three  great  overturns  took  place. 
In  1884  the  haughty  Chinese  drove  the  then  incon- 
spicuous Japanese  so  precipitately  from  the  land  that 
they  left  their  dead  on  the  streets  to  be  devoured  by 
the  dogs. 

China-Japan  War. — This  was  a  costly  victory  for 
China  since  it  convinced  the  Japanese  that  they  must 
come  to  a  final  understanding  with  their  great  neigh- 
bour regarding  the  peninsula  over  which  each  had 
claimed  suzerainty  for  centuries.  Without  exciting 
comment,  Japan  prepared  for  this  contest  during  the 
next  ten  years,  and  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure, 
while  the  authorities  were  actively  engaged  in  prep- 
arations at  home,  their  agents  were  all  through 
China  in  disguise  gathering  such  exact  information 
as  to  that  country  and  its  resources  as  had  probably 
never  before  been  collected  even  by  the  Chinese 
themselves. 

When  she  was  all  ready  to  surprise  the  world  with 
the  perfection  of  her  military  organization  and  ar- 
rangements, the  assassination  of  one  of  her  Korean 
protegees  in  Shanghai  seemed  likely  to  furnish  the 

243 


244  THINGS  KOEEAN 

necessary  spark  for  kindling  the  fire,  but  a  better 
method  of  kindling  the  blaze  appeared  in  the  results 
of  an  unusually  severe  insurrection  that  had  broken 
out  in  Korea  itself. 

This  outburst  was  simply  a  markedly  vigorous 
protest  against  official  oppression,  such  as  is  com- 
mon in  Oriental  countries,  but  as  the  trouble  grew 
and  the  very  capital  seemed  to  be  threatened,  the 
official  chiefly  at  fault,  fearing  for  his  own  safety, 
applied  to  the  Chinese  representative  for  assistance. 
The  request  was  granted,  largely,  as  was  reported  at 
the  time,  owing  to  the  clever  instigation  of  the  then 
secretary  of  the  Japanese  Legation.  Troops  were 
therefore  sent  from  China  for  the  suppression  of  this 
insurrection  and  in  sending  these  troops  China  vio- 
lated the  agreement  she  had  entered  into  with  Japan 
after  the  little  revolution  of  ten  years  before,  which 
agreement  was  to  the  effect  that  thereafter  neither 
country  would  land  forces  in  Korea  without  first 
notifying  the  other.  Ten  years  of  quiet  and  of 
paramount  influence  in  the  peninsula,  during  which 
time  the  Chinese  representative  had  lorded  it  over 
the  Japanese  minister  in  common  with  the  ministers 
from  other  countries,  had  all  served  to  lull  him  into 
forgetfulness  of  this  agreement,  and  China  proper 
had  no  more  idea  at  that  time  that  Japan  would  dare 
to  make  war  upon  her  than  had  Russia  ten  years 
later. 

I  chanced  to  be  dining  at  the  Chinese  Legation  the 
night  that  telegraphic  news  was  received  of  the  des- 
patch of  a  Chinese  force.     Possibly  the  jubilance  of 


CHANGES  AND  PEOBABILITIES        245 

the  Japanese  present  may  have  served  to  accentuate 
the  gravity  of  the  crisis ;  at  any  rate  it  soon  became 
evident  that  a  grave  crisis  was  at  hand  and  the  dinner 
broke  up  in  more  or  less  gloom. 

The  Chinese  troops  landed  and  were  later  given 
battle  at  Asan,  while  the  next  contingent — on  the 
British  ship  Kowshing — were  killed  or  captured  when 
their  vessel  was  sunk  by  the  Japanese  as  she  was 
approaching  her  anchorage  near  Asan. 

Japanese  Preparedness. — The  Chinese  made  their 
first  landing  on  June  8,  1894,  and  the  Japanese,  as 
though  standing  by  all  ready  for  action,  landed 
marines  on  the  10th  and  began  to  fortify  the  region 
around  Seoul,  while  awaiting  the  regular  troops  which 
arrived  a  few  days  later. 

While  the  Japanese  thus  secured  the  most  impor- 
tant positions,  the  Chinese  waited  until  the  battle  of 
Asan  on  July  28-29,  when  the  Japanese  were  all 
ready  and  strong  enough  to  go  out  and  look  for 
them.  The  Kowshing  was  sunk  on  July  25th,  thus 
depriving  the  Chinese  of  reinforcements  and  moving 
the  scene  of  hostilities  to  the  north.  War  was  not 
declared  until  August  1st — some  time  after  war  had 
actually  begun. 

The  order  and  preparedness  of  the  Japanese  at 
this  •  time  was  simply  marvellous,  because  it  was  so 
entirely  unexpected.  It  was  the  first  intimation  the 
world  had  of  the  excellence  of  the  Japanese  military 
organization.  Yet  we,  who  knew  China  well,  had  no 
doubt  that  when  China's  millions  began  pouring 
over  the  Yalu,  they  would  drive  the  Japanese  into 


246  THINGS  KOREAN 

the  sea.  Even  the  Chinese  residents,  official  and 
commerical,  seemed  most  to  fear  their  own  un- 
organized army,  and  the  merchants  closed  their 
shops  and  followed  their  representative  in  his  pre- 
cipitate flight. 

A  new  order  had  come  into  force,  however,  for 
which  the  previous  opinions  of  the  world  were  un- 
prepared, for  with  the  battle  of  Pengyang  on 
September  15-17,  and  the  naval  battle  of  the  Yalu 
on  September  17th,  the  war  was  practically  over. 
Japan  had  taken  a  new  place  among  the  nations  and 
the  showing  up  of  China's  weakness  was  like  the 
opening  of  Pandora's  box  in  the  troubles  thus  let  out 
upon  Asia. 

Diplomatic  Blunders. — The  brilliance  of  Japan's 
feats  at  arms  was  counterbalanced  by  her  blunders  in 
attempting  to  reorganize  conditions  in  Korea,  begin- 
ning with  such  interference  with  personal  liberty  as 
regulating  the  size  of  sleeves,  the  colour  of  clothes, 
and  the  method  of  wearing  the  hair ;  ending  with  the 
assassination  of  the  queen  in  October,  1895,  and  the 
reversion  of  paramount  influence  to  Russia. 

Cause  of  Russian  War. — This  new  position  of 
Russia  in  Korea  taken  in  connection  with  the  wrest- 
ing from  Japan  of  her  fruits  of  victory  in  the 
Liaotung  Peninsula  with  the  subsequent  occupation 
of  that  region  by  Russia,  seemed  to  convince  Japan 
that  she  must  come  to  an  understanding  with  Russia 
as  she  had  with  China,  and  the  next  ten  years  were 
devoted  to  most  strenuous  preparation  for  the  inevi- 
table. 


CHANGES  AND  PEOBABILITIES        247 

Russia's  Representatives. — The  Russian  govern- 
ment had  for  many  years  as  representative  in  Seoul, 
a  most  cultured  man,  who,  with  his  amiable  wife,  was 
completely  devoted  to  the  gentle  Koreans,  whom 
they  actually  seemed  to  love.  Had  this  man  re- 
mained at  that  post,  with  his  suave  and  compromis- 
ing ways,  it  might  have  been  more  difficult  to  find  a 
cause  of  war  in  Russian  operations  in  Korea,  faithful 
as  he  was  to  his  own  government  while  doing  all  in 
his  power  to  meet  opposition  in  a  fair  and  sufficiently 
yielding  manner.  That  I  am  not  mistaken  in  hold- 
ing this  opinion  is  shown  by  the  remark  of  a  high 
Japanese  official  who  said  to  me  that  it  was  a 
fortunate  thing  for  Japan  that  this  man  was  recalled, 
since  with  him  at  the  Russian  Legation,  sending 
accurate  accounts  to  St.  Petersburg,  it  might  have 
been  difficult  to  bring  about  war. 

Other  ministers  followed  this  one,  however,  and 
Russian  arrogance  grew  until  it  became  objection- 
able to  others  than  Japanese.  The  failure  of  Russia 
to  carry  out  her  pledges  regarding  the  evacuation  of 
Manchuria  served  admirably  the  purpose  of  the 
Japanese ;  but  there  were  pretexts  enough  in  Korea 
upon  which  to  bring  on  the  conflict  so  long  pre- 
pared for,  had  this  one  not  been  at  hand;  the 
possession  of  Korea  and  the  exertion  of  paramount 
influence  in  China  being  the  stake  at  issue. 

Third  Change  in  Ten  Years. — Thus  it  was  that 
we  were  to  see  another  great  upheaval.  In  1884  the 
haughty  Chinese  had  driven  the  then  insignificant 
Japanese  from  Korea,  only  to  be  most  ignominiously 


248  THINGS  KOREAN 

driven  out  themselves  after  ten  years  by  their  no 
longer  despised  island  neighbours,  and  now,  after 
another  ten-year  period,  the  proud  Russian  was  to 
be  thrown  into  utter  consternation  and  actually  de- 
feated in  war  by  a  race  so  contemned  that  they 
could  not  be  taken  seriously  in  their  preparations  for 
a  conflict  with  so  great  an  empire  as  that  of  the 
czar. 

Russian  Indifference. — This  failure  to  appreciate 
the  gravity  of  the  situation  was  most  astonishing. 
Russia's  representatives  seemed  unable  to  realize 
what  seemed  apparent  to  others,  that  war  was 
inevitable  if  conditions  did  not  change;  and  when  the 
subject  was  pressed  upon  him  he  declared  that  if 
Japan  should  actually  commit  any  such  grave  mis- 
take she  would  soon  get  enough  of  war.  He  took 
no  measures  to  protect  his  ships  at  Chemulpo ;  he 
even  dined  out  with  a  gay  party  the  night  of  the  day 
on  which  Japanese  troops  were  landed,  and  on  the 
next  day  he  was  a  prisoner  in  his  own  legation  while 
his  ships  were  sunken  wrecks  at  Chemulpo. 

A  few  days  later,  on  a  cold  gray  morning  with  a 
pall  of  snow  hanging  over  the  city  and  falling  gently 
upon  us,  I  went  with  the  other  ministers  to  the  rail- 
way station  to  bid  adieu  to  our  Russian  colleague, 
who  was  departing  with  his  family  and  staff  and  all  the 
Russian  residents,  under  a  Japanese  military  escort, 
to  a  refuge  on  board  a  French  ship  at  Chemulpo. 
He  was  not  at  all  downcast  apparently,  and  bade  us 
au  revoir  but  not  good-bye.  He  was  a  brave  and 
able  man  but  his  confidence  was  misplaced. 


CHANGES  AND  PROBABILITIES        249 

Korea's  Lost  Opportunity. — This  time  Japan  is  tak- 
ing no  chances  in  Korea.  The  country  is  to  be  hers 
to  exploit  for  herself.  The  Koreans  are  reaping  the 
harvest  of  their  own  sowing  through  the  twenty 
years  during  which  they  enjoyed  more  or  less  of  in- 
dependence. Instead  of  heeding  good  advice  and 
clearing  up  their  premises  so  no  powerful  neighbour 
would  have  an  excuse  for  doing  this  for  them,  they 
played  at  all  manner  of  silly  pastimes.  The  king 
took  upon  himself  the  title  of  emperor  in  1897, 
and  in  1902  he  invited  ambassadors  from  other 
lands  to  be  present  at  a  great  anniversary  that  was 
to  have  been  celebrated  in  honour  of  his  forty  years 
of  rule.  It  was  pitiful,  but  the  kindly  disposed  man 
had  his  share  of  human  frailties  and  yielded  to  the 
persuasions  of  his  flattering  courtiers,  so  that  his 
government  went  from  bad  to  worse  until  it  be- 
came an  easy  prey  to  any  one  strong  enough  to  go 
in  and  put  things  to  rights.  The  verdict  of  war  has 
left  that  task  to  Japan. 

Our  Own  Position. — We  may  to-day  regret  our 
lost  position  in  that  land  and  the  jeopardy  in  which 
many  of  our  Asiatic  interests  are  placed  by  virtue  of 
the  changed  conditions,  but  it  is  late  now  to  com- 
plain. True  we  have  a  treaty  with  Korea  still,  but  it 
is  reported  that  Japan  wishes  this  set  aside,  at  least 
to  the  extent  of  allowing  of  a  customs  union  between 
the  two  countries,  which  would  substitute  for  the 
nominal  customs  dues  we  now  pay,  the  protective 
rates  of  Japan  proper. 

After  her  brilliant  war  with  Russia,  Japan  is  in  no 


250  THINGS  KOREAN 

mood  to  accept  any  marked  interference  on  our  part 
in  what  she  may  consider  as  being  her  legitimate 
right  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  her  victory  in  her  own 
"  prearranged  "  manner.  Our  day  for  any  such  in- 
terference seems  to  have  passed. 

In  the  summer  of  1903  it  chanced  to  be  my  good 
fortune  to  make  a  trip  through  Manchuria,  Siberia 
and  Russia,  on  my  way  to  America,  returning  to 
Korea  by  way  of  Japan.  I  had  already  reported 
upon  the  critical  situation  of  affairs  as  I  saw  it,  and 
explained  how  it  seemed  to  me  that  a  conflict  was 
unavoidable.  As  I  saw  the  great  consumption  of 
American  products  in  Manchuria,  it  seemed  to  me 
that  we  were  the  ones  most  likely  to  profit  by  the 
expenditure  of  those  hundreds  of  millions  of  Russian 
roubles  in  the  pacification  of  that  vast  territory.  It 
seemed  also  that  we,  of  all  people,  were  regarded  by 
the  Russians  with  the  greatest  favour  and  that  we 
had  the  best  opportunity  of  all  for  cultivating  inti- 
mate trade  relations  with  that  vast  empire,  as  yet 
almost  undeveloped.  As  I  saw  the  thousands  of 
moujiks  en  route  to  the  plains  of  Siberia  and  Man- 
churia, it  was  impressed  upon  me  that  these  people 
could  not  be  made  into  creditable  artisans  under  at 
least  two  generations,  if  at  all,  while  Russian  institu- 
tions militated  against  the  establishment  of  great 
manufacturing  centres,  since  such  must  tend  to  be- 
come centres  of  social  unrest. 

While  this  seemed  to  be  the  case  regarding  Russia, 
Japan  on  the  other  hand  was  made  up  of  a  people 
quite  our  equals  in  a  commercial  and  manufacturing 


CHANGES  AND  PEOBABILITIES        251 

sense,  while  they  possessed  the  added  advantage  of 
cheap  labour  and  practical  immunity  from  grave 
labour  troubles  by  virtue  of  their  history  of  centuries 
of  inbred  habits  of  subordination.  By  encouraging 
Japan  it  seemed  that  we  were  egging  her  on  to  war, 
a  war  that  would  harm  us  probably  more  than  it 
would  Russia  should  Japan  prove  to  be  the  victor. 
As  to  the  result  I  put  myself  on  record  as  of  the 
opinion  that  Japan  would  succeed  at  sea  and  conquer 
Port  Arthur,  though  I  did  not  think  the  capture  of 
that  fortress  would  be  the  serious  matter  it  proved  to 
be,  and  I  never  supposed  that  Russia  would  capitu- 
late so  easily.  However,  I  seem  to  have  been  about 
four  years  ahead  of  the  times.  Things  in  1907  were 
not  as  they  were  in  1903,  and  whereas  at  the  earlier 
date  I  was  said  to  be  "  travelling  out  of  his  (my) 
province,"  I  find  now  that  many  people  seem  to  have 
secretly  held  similar  ideas  at  that  time,  which  they 
now  express  openly. 

China  the  Real  Objective. — Evidently,  however, 
Japan  now  realizes  that  her  future  greatness  depends 
upon  her  dominating  China.  Events  succeeding  her 
Russian  victories  indicated  that  she  counted  upon 
China's  being  so  overawed  by  these  successes  over 
the  latter's  most  dreaded  neighbour  as  to  induce  her 
abjectly  to  accept  Japanese  guidance  and  eventually 
Japanese  control.  In  other  words,  China,  rather  than 
Korea,  became  Japan's  objective  as  success  in  in- 
creasing measure  fell  to  her  arms. 

China  seems  to  have  acquiesced  for  a  time,  but  she 
seems  now  to  have  regained  her  equanimity  and  to 


252  THINGS  KOREAN 

have  resorted  to  her  old-time  tactics  of  delay  and 
covert  obstruction,  while  at  the  same  time  insisting 
upon  the  enjoyment  of  some  of  her  rights. 

Japan  acts  now  regarding  China's  attitude,  in  a 
way  made  very  familiar  from  watching  her  conduct 
in  leading  up  to  two  previous  wars, — those  with 
China  and  Russia.  War  is  an  ugly  word  and  one 
not  pleasant  to  write  in  connection  with  present  con- 
ditions in  the  Far  East,  but  there  is  trouble  of  some 
kind  brewing,  and  with  England  so  tied  up  with 
Japan  that  she  has  to  oppose  the  vested  rights  of  her 
own  people  in  supporting  Japanese  claims;  with 
Russia  prostrate  for  the  time  being ;  and  with  the 
Anglo-Japanese  alliance  securing  Japan  at  least  from 
molestation  by  any  third  power,  a  misstep  on  the 
part  of  China  may  well  precipitate  serious  trouble 
upon  the  Middle  Kingdom. 

Incidentally  any  such  trouble  would  doubtless  re- 
sult in  one  of  the  usual  indemnities  by  which  China 
invariably  pays  for  her  temerity  in  opposing  a  greater 
force,  and  this  would  serve  Japan's  purpose  admirably 
at  this  time  of  depletion  in  her  treasury.  This  would 
be  a  crime  that  should  not  be  permitted ;  unfortu- 
nately we,  with  Germany,  seem  to  be  the  only  ones 
in  position  to  speak  for  China,  and  speech  in  such 
case  would  have  to  have  the  backing  of  a  strong 
fleet. 

England's  Position. — The  strangest  feature  of  this 
sudden  rise  of  Japan  is  the  position  in  which  Eng- 
land must  find  herself.  Her  alliance  of  1902  made 
the  war  with  Russia  possible.     In  order  to  protect 


CHANGES  AND  PEOBABILITIES        253 

her  Indian  frontier  and  perhaps  to  enable  Japan  to 
accede  to  the  Russian  terms  at  the  time  of  the  Ports- 
mouth convention,  she  made  the  new  and  sweeping 
agreement  with  Japan  of  1905,  whereby  she  is 
obliged  to  come  to  the  latter's  assistance  in  case  any 
third  power  makes  war  upon  her.  She  probably 
never  considered  the  possibility  of  our  becoming  in- 
volved in  any  such  difficulty  with  Japan,  since  we 
had  done  almost  as  much  for  that  country  in  con- 
nection with  the  war  as  had  England  herself.  Ger- 
many was  not  so  short-sighted,  however,  and  by  re- 
fraining from  entering  into  any  pact  with  Japan,  such 
as  France  and  even  Russia  have  since  entered  into, 
she  kept  herself  free  to  offer  us  her  friendship  should 
it  become  advisable.  Later,  England  compounded 
her  difficulties  with  Russia  and  even  concluded  an 
agreement  which  afforded  the  necessary  protection 
for  the  Indian  frontier,  thus  making  the  Anglo- 
Japanese  alliance  of  1905  not  only  unnecessary  but 
an  actual  source  of  weakness. 

While  a  war  between  America  and  Japan  should, 
from  the  history  of  the  relations  between  the  two 
peoples,  be  one  of  the  most  improbable  of  possibilities, 
so  much  has  been  said  upon  the  subject,  and  so  many 
preventive  measures  have  been  reported  as  having 
been  instituted,  that  it  may  be  presumed  some  fire 
existed  under  all  that  cloud  of  smoke.  The  inability 
of  raising  funds  in  Paris,  Berlin  and  London,  is  said 
to  have  been  the  great  disperser  of  this  ominous 
cloud ;  but  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  England  has 
done  her  share   in  calming  any  militant  spirit  that 


254  THINGS  KOEEAN 

might  compel  her  to  risk  a  conflict  with  her  "  nearest 
of  kin"  and  the  consequent  loss  of  contiguous 
territory. 

England's  Commercial  Peril. — But  aside  from  any- 
such  possible  or  probable  war  complications,  Eng- 
land faces  a  grave  problem  in  the  usurpation  of  her 
control  of  the  Asiatic  trade  by  the  rival  she  has  con^ 
jured  up  in  the  Eastern  seas, — a  rival  more  clever 
than  England  herself  in  manufacturing  lines,  and  one 
not  to  be  despised  in  any  commercial  or  financial  un- 
dertaking. England  is  primarily  a  manufacturing 
nation  and  starvation  and  riot  await  the  shutting 
down  of  her  mills.  So  important  is  the  China  trade 
to  these  mills,  particularly  those  engaged  in  cotton 
manufactures,  that  it  has  been  asserted  on  good 
authority  they  cannot  be  kept  running  without  this 
trade,  the  loss  of  which,  therefore,  means  want  and 
insurrection  in  the  British  Isles. 

That  Japan  intends  to  control  this  trade  is  evident. 
That  she  is  succeeding  beyond  expectations  is  appar- 
ent from  her  success  in  wresting  from  England  the 
carrying  trade  in  Asiatic  waters. 

Recently  the  chairman  of  the  board  of  directors  of 
the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Steam  Navigation  Com- 
pany, at  a  meeting  in  London,  announced  that  there 
would  be  no  dividend  for  the  year  just  past  because 
of  the  fact  that  the  Japanese  steamship  lines  had 
taken  from  them  all  their  former  great  trade  between 
India  and  the  ports  of  China  and  Japan.  This  epoch- 
making  paragraph  seemed  to  pass  through  the 
American  press  with  little  or  no  editorial  comment; 


CHANGES  AND  PEOBABILITIES        255 

but  to  one  who  has  seen  the  important  position  held 
by  the  P.  &  O.  in  Asia,  where  it  has  been  one  of  the 
great  British  institutions,  the  announcement  is  preg- 
nant with  meaning  and  prophetic  of  greater  changes 
yet  to  come. 

America's  Commercial  Loss. — We  stand  to  lose 
vastly  by  Japan's  successes.  Already  she  has  made 
serious  inroads  upon  our  trans-Pacific  carrying  trade 
and  may  well  be  expected  eventually  to  be  in  entire 
control  of  the  commerce  of  the  Pacific,  if  her  progress 
continues.  Our  own  export  trade  will  suffer  in  all 
lines  in  which  it  is  possible  for  Japan  to  compete ; 
she  is  already  shipping  cotton  goods  to  us,  the  re- 
ports for  1907  showing  that  while  we  only  sent  her 
manufactured  cotton  goods  to  the  amount  of  $14,- 
389,  she  sold  us  goods  of  that  character  to  the  amount 
of  $107,392,  and  the  balance  of  trade  with  us  is 
heavily  on  her  side,  though  she  buys  largely  of  our 
raw  cotton.  Our  loss,  however,  will  not  be  felt  by 
our  people  as  will  that  which  faces  England. 

The  Truce. — One  of  the  most  astute  observers  of 
Russo-Japanese  relations  before,  during  and  since 
the  war,  has  entitled  his  recent  remarkable  book, 
"The  Truce  in  the  Far  East  and  its  Aftermath." 
The  title  seems  aptly  chosen.  The  Island  Empire 
of  the  Rising  Sun  is  frequently  torn  and  rent  by  ter- 
rible convulsions  of  nature.  Advices  from  that 
country  are  to  the  effect  that  vast  forces  are  fever- 
ishly engaged  day  and  night  in  constructing  all 
manner  of  warlike  material;  may  this  not  portend 
an  outbreak  greater  and  more  far-reaching  than  those 


256  THINGS  KOEEAN 

natural  phenomena  to  which  the  Japanese  are  more 
or  less  accustomed  ?  If  so  the  truce  may  be  shattered. 
The  alliance  with  England  seems  to  make  necessary 
some  such  convulsion  during  the  seven  years  it  still 
has  to  live,  if  it  is  to  come  at  all,  and  yet  this  very  al- 
liance may  well  be  used  by  England  to  prevent  such 
a  catastrophe, — in  the  interest  of  her  own  self-pres- 
ervation; though  if  China  is  hectored  into  com- 
mitting some  act  that  may  be  taken  by  Japan  as  one 
of  warlike  aggression,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  Great 
Britain  can  avoid  becoming  entangled  in  the  result- 
ing clash,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  attempting  to  see 
that  other  powers  do  not  interfere  in  behalf  of  their 
own  Chinese  interests. 

But  even  if  China  should  escape,  who  knows  but 
the  little  peninsula  of  Korea  may  not  possibly  wit- 
ness another  decennial  overturn  and  pass  under  the 
guidance  of  yet  another  overlord?  In  1884  China 
drove  Japan  from  Korea.  In  1894  Japan  drove 
China  from  the  peninsula.  In  1904-5  Japan  drove 
Russia  from  the  entire  Korean  neighbourhood  except 

in  the  vicinity  of  Vladivostock.     In  191 5 -.     The 

blank  will  have  to  be  filled  later ;  may  we  be  spared 
any  military  participation  in  events  that  may  lead 
to  any  such  change. 


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